Dick Wakefield, for the younger set, was one of the original crop of late 40s-early 50s "bonus babies," at a time when Organized Baseball, to discourage the practice of throwing huge $5000 bonuses at young players, instituted a rule which stipulated that when a Major league team signed a player to a contract in excess of $4,000, the Major League team was required to keep that player on the 40-man roster for two full-seasons. The most famous of these was Clint Hartung of the New York Giants, signed as both a pitching and hitting sensation, proving to be neither. Wakefield was another, and he had a few decent seasons with the Tigers, but never justified the thousands that were thrown at him (of course WWII had something to do with that).