If no Yankee dominance, how long till major league draft?

[DTF955]

One major sign of baseball owners not wanting to change is their lack of a draft till 1965. It took 14 yankee pennants in 16 years before the started one.

But, if the Yankees hadn't dominated that heavily, would owners have started a draft around that time anyway? Or just kept it the way it was before, with teams competing to sign prospects everywhere?

I'm thinking it might have been daleyd a few years more, but that's it. Just like free agency, times were just changing in baseball then. But, I'm not really thta sure. It does seem, though, like it was a timing thing more than anything. Otherwise, why not start a big league draft in 1958, after 9 Yanke pennants in 10 years?

[Ubiquitous]

Major League baseball had drafts before 1965. The major reason baseball had drafts is to control costs. A draft removes demand. Instead of 16 bidders or 30 bidders there is simply one bidder who owns the rights to your services. If the player and the bidder cannot come to an agreement then the player does not play. The New York Yankees did not have a stranglehold on young talent. If anything by 1965 they didn't have anything close to it. The Yankees were one of the slowest teams to look at black or latin talent, which at the time was the good young talent.

[DTF955]

Where were they drafting from, then; other clubs? Why is 1965 and Rick monday often cited as the first?

I do remember something about bonus babies in the '40s and '50s having to be on the roster for two years. I guess I am a little puzzled by where these came from; I think Dick Wakefield was the first, in '43 or so.

[Ubiquitous]

They had drafts I believe as far back as the 20's. I'll have to look in one of my books for the exact date. The draft I believe was for minor leaguers and fringe type players I believe I forget the specifics.

Bonus Babies were the games first attempt at limiting the amount of money given to prospects. The plan was to curtail large amounts of money being spent on players by forcing teams to have them sit on their bench for a couple of years. This attempt was a failure.