Essay on Excessive Salaries in Professional Baseball

Having salary caps for sports teams is an easy way to create equal opportunity for every team within a league. Without salary caps, the wealthiest teams pay for the

Do you think professional athletes are overpaid? You might think they earn more than what they are worth for playing half a year, but athletes have many things which contribute to their salary. Some of these things include their earnings from endorsements, ticket sales, performance, merchandise, their social contributions, and TV ratings. Although there are many factors that contribute to their salary, professional athletes may be overpaid because as a society, we contribute to their success. So, in the end, part of the athlete’s salary comes from the people who support the sports in the first place. These are just some of the reasons why athletes are paid so much money.

Anyone who has been involved in an organized sport, whether it is backyard football or a high school sports team, knows that these sports all have organizations that are responsible for setting rules, determining conditions of play, and penalizing individuals who infringe the rules. Some of the organizations like the National Football league and the MLB are familiar to most people, the rules they follow are not generally understood by anyone who is not closely associated with the sport. Most fans and sport critics assume that what is happening inside these organizations are of little concern to them. However, this is not the case. In the MLB, the New York Yankees spend an excessive amount of money every year to obtain big name players. A

Jayson Stark, ESPN columnist, presents an interesting argument of the downfall of baseball after free agency. He uses sarcasm and slight humor to introduce the reader to the topic of free agency and uses the argument style of comparison and contrast to predict what today might have held had there been no free agency. But within his column, player agent Tom Reich states, “The people who criticize free agency to easily today don’t realize how bad baseball was twenty-five years ago” (Stark). It is Stark who realizes that the talent of the game has improved, but the overall passion in each player may have decreased.

At the beginning of the twentieth century and the outset of the professional sports industry the existence of underpaid players at the premier level of athletics was a legitimate problem. It was this problem that played a role in the fixing of the

According to Lewicki, Barry & Saunders (2010), the major developments of labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball (MLB) started in the late 1960s and were characterized by the ongoing disputes between the owners and the players that resulted in the following hard bargaining agreements, work stoppages and lockouts:

Every year, it becomes more obvious that many sports in America have problems. For years, Hockey has been criticized for its excessive violence. The National Football League has also been scrutinized for this reason as well as the fact that many of the top players have constantly been in trouble with the law. Major League Baseball is no different. The situation with baseball is more complicated, and is not only ruining the game itself, but also drawing millions of fans away from the sport. The biggest problem is with the high salaries paid to athletes. These salaries are taking the competitiveness out of several sports, especially baseball, where there is no salary cap. Action must be taken

Sports stars aren’t getting paid enough each year to play sports because people who don't play are get paid a lot , the best players on each team should be paid the most, and MVP winners should be the most paid on their team. This topic is important because it need to tell the teams that the best players should be paid the most. A solution to this problem is to pay the best players the most. The best should be paid the

Every sports team/organization operates the same when it comes to salaries some players get paid more than others and salaries fluctuate based on the economy. In the 1920s the average monthly salary for a Negro baseball player was about $230 which is about $2,760 annually. Whereas in the 1920s the average annual salary for a major league player was about $5,000 to $6,000. Then the dreaded 1930s hit the decade of depression. Despite the failing economy baseball was and is America's pastime and is always popular among the people. People would always manage to go see a baseball game every now and then. This would allow for an average annual salary increase of about $1000 from about $5000-$6000 to $7000. It obviously made sense that as the economy is failing salaries would start to decrease. Of course they did Negro baseball players monthly salary went down from $230 to $170. Which would be $2,040 annually about $720 less than the previous

Any sports one looks at can be classified as a money-making pit. Scouts looking at young talent ready to sign them for a quick buck and then once they stop producing, move on to the next potential talent. Baseball is the sport that is an industry dominated by trying to gain a profit from a region’s juvenile talent (Ruck). Since 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, there has been an increase in Latin American countries represented in MLB. More than a quarter of major league players are from Latin American, with about half of the minor league players being Latino (Ruck). On the opening day of the 2011 season, eighty-six players represented the Dominican Republic alone. That is more than a tenth of major leaguers (Ruck). One would

Major League Baseball players average just over four million a year making it the second highest paying sport. Players determine win-loss records which drives ticket sales which creates revenue and so on. This is why player salaries is one of the most critical aspects of running a MLB team. These salaries are negotiated using statistics such as batting average, on base percentage, hits and more. When negotiations are not working, an arbitration process is used which is unique to the MLB.

Collective bargaining and unions have had a considerable effect on fans through professional sports. Because of these contract negotiations, athletes in recent years have benefited from an increasing share of ticket and television profits. Collective bargaining has resulted in strikes and lockouts and has disrupted several seasons through cancellation of games or even ending a season. The televising of sporting events has become the largest source of revenue

The arbitration board should give specific attention, for comparative salary reasons, to the contracts of players of the MLB service not surpassing one yearly service group above the player’s yearly service group. Evidence of the following should not be allowed. (1) The monetary position of the player or the team; (2) journalism pieces or materials of that nature showing the performance of the player or the team, except that known yearly player honors for playing excellence should not be omitted; (3) offers made by the player or the team before arbitration started; (4) the charges to the parties of their agents; and (5) salaries in other sports or jobs. Mr. Martinez has reached 5 years of MLB service allowing him to file for arbitration. The results of his past accomplishments and for seen potential accessible in this brief and in verbal argument shows that Mr. Martinez is due a salary above the $7.75

Baseball is considered America's pastime as it is steeped in history and prestige. However, due in part to the emergence of alternative sporting events such as skateboarding, snowboarding and competitive biking, the profits previously garnered within the industry are not growing as fast as they once where. In fact, in many instances, individual player salaries are outpacing the growth of ticket and television revenue. Table 1 within the appendix was constructed by Michael J. Haupert, a professor at the University of Wisconsin. The table depicts TV revenue (excluding local markets), average ticket price, and average player salary from 1964 to 2002. For your convenience the pertinent information is highlighted in yellow. As depicted from the chart, total television revenue from 1964 to 2002 increased nearly 1000% on an inflation adjusted basis. During this same period however, player salaries have increase by over 2500%. Likewise, average ticket prices have not increased by this magnitude either (Haupert, 2010). Futhermore, according to the Forbes, every team in baseball with the exception of one (The Florida Marlins) spent at least 80% of their revenue on baseball operations last year. These operations include player salaries as well. The percentages vary and ranged from the Detroit Tigers who spent 116% of their revenue (operated at a loss), to the Marlins who spent 68%. Seventeen teams spent 90% or more on baseball operating expenses (Pasnanski, 2010). To many individuals,

Worsnop also states that professional sports leagues are thriving in the United States. Fan attendance is at an all-time high and TV revenues are skyrocketing. But the issue of free agency continues to plague player-management relations. This is especially true in major league baseball. The owner's feel that there must be restrictions placed on players' movements from team to team to create a competitive balance and also to keep salaries down. The players do not totally reject management's argument, but they believe that they should have latitude to test the market and negotiate with other teams in