The first baseball player to make $1,000,000 a year was Nolan Ryan.
Nolan Ryan the legendary Hall of fame pitcher and Major League Baseball player signed a historic 4 year, $4.5 million free agent contract with the Houston Astros on November 19th 1979.
The $4.5 million free agent contract that Nolan Ryan signed with the Houston Astros on November 19th 1979, guaranteed Nolan Ryan an average annual salary of over $1.1 million dollars starting in the 1980 season.
When Nolan Ryan signed the contract he moved from the California Angels to the Houston Astros.
And although, other baseball players also had large contracts prior to the contract that Nolan Ryan signed, Ryan Nolan's deal for $1.1 million a year was the first to explicitly guarantee a 7 figure sum for a single season.
For example, Dave parker had signed a 5 year, $5 million dollar contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier in the year 1979, although due to deferred payment structures, his actual base salary during these active seasons never actually reached the $1 million dollar mark.
Ryan Nolan's contract instead officially ushered in the modern era of multi-million dollar sports contracts.
Kirby Puckett and Rickey Henderson signed the first contracts which paid an average of $3 million a year in November 1989.
Albert Belle was the first Major League Baseball player to make $10 million a year.
He reached this milestone in 1997 after signing a five-year, $55 million contract with the Chicago White Sox, giving him an average annual salary of $11 million.