Thursday, April 16, 2009

Show me the money

It was only a few years ago that the debate raged in Major League Baseball about why black children were not playing baseball anymore. Polls were taken, data collected and analysis made on why these children were abandoning the sport for basketball and football. One of the reasons offered was that the other two sports offered better salaries.

Well, consider this: The top 10 paid players in Major Leage Baseball for 2009:

1. Alex Rodriguez, NYY $28,000,000
2. Jason Giambi, NYY $23,428,571
3. Derek Jeter, NYY $21,600,000
4. Manny Ramirez, BOS $18,929,923
5. Carlos Beltran, NYM $18,622,810
6. Ichiro Suzuki, SEA $17,102,149
7. Johan Santana, NYM $16,984,216
8. Todd Helton, COL $16,600,000
9. Torii Hunter, ANA $16,500,000
10t. Bobby Abreu, NYY $16,000,000
10t. Carlos Delgado, NYM $16,000,000
10t. Andy Pettitte, NYY $16,000,000
10t. Carlos Zambrano, CHC $16,000,000

Three players - Mark Teixeira, Mike Lowell and Carlos Lee - were tied for 50th at $12.5 million. At 150 on the list is New York shortstop Jose Reyes at $6.1 million.

I'm not sure why this debate began in the first place but looking at these numbers, it's obvious that salary should have little to do with why fewer blacks are playing baseball.

3 comments:

  1. Manny Ramirez and Bobby Abreu do not play for these teams anymore. I don't keep tabs on how much they make but are these numbers acurrate for the 2009 season with these 2 on new teams teams this year?

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  2. I'm not sure of the specific numbers, but I think Ramirez is making in the neighborhood of $25 million for the Dodgers this year.

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  3. I think it's because of the media exposure. Football and basketball gets much more and baseball players (and fans) get no respect.

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