How would Gus have afforded to give his yearly salary to Leonard Huff?

Late in the movie there was a part where Gus Cantrell wanted the Buzz to play the Twins in an exhibition match at Buzz Stadium. This would actually be a rematch of a game earlier in the season where the Buzz and Twins played to a 3-3 tie at the Metrodome. The tie was due to a so-called power failure where Leonard Huff ordered that the lights be turned off at the stadium. Gus said that if the Buzz were to lose the rematch he would give his entire salary for the year to Huff. That seemed like a stupid and risky wager to me. First of all the movie seemed to imply that Gus was mostly a career minor leaguer. I would guess that he had a very brief major league career since Downtown said that he had triples of Gus' rookie card. I would assume that a rookie card would be a major league card. Also Harry Doyle said that he remembered Gus from AA baseball. Since Harry made no mention of a major league career for Gus, I'm guessing that Gus would have had a very brief major league career if he had a major league career at all. Since Gus was likely for the most part a career minor leaguer, I don't think he would have gotten wealthy from his pro baseball career. I think another sign that Gus didn't have deep pockets was the fact that he normally didn't eat super expensive meals. Early in the movie Gus was shown eating at what looked to be a bar/café type restaurant after pitching a game for the Miracle. When Gus and his girlfriend Maggie were watching Downtown play a AA level game they were shown ordering hot dogs. Then after Gus started managing the Buzz there was a scene where he was with the team at a small diner. Finally when Roger Dorn invited Gus and Maggie to take a trip to Minneapolis to watch the Twins play he treated them to high class dining. Now it's widely known that salaries are very low for many minor league players. As far as I know the money isn't super high for minor league managers and coaches either. Now since Gus likely didn't have all this disposable income laying around, and he likely wasn't getting paid a ton of money as a manager, just how would he have afforded to pay Leonard Huff a whole year's salary if the Buzz would have lost?