The $250 Million Dollar Man

For the life of me, I'll never figure out the ridiculous salaries that are paid to professional athletes. Most recently, former St. Louis Cardinal's slugger Albert Pojols signed a $250 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels. That's $25 million a year for the next ten years.

I know there's a lot of work and dedication that goes into becoming a professional ball player, but $25 million a year? Come on! Think about it...... assuming that Pojols gets paid every other week, like most American workers, his gross pay is over $1 million each paycheck! This is more than many of his fans will make in a lifetime.

And if I'm not mistaken, Pojols still isn't the highest paid player in baseball. Alex Rodriquez of the New York Yankees is currently on a $275 million/10 year contract. Holy Toledo, Batman! Can these guys ever possibly spend all of this money? I mean, once you got a couple hundred million in your pocket, do you really need any more? Is it really worth packing your bags and leaving a city and/or team that has supported you for all of these years?


I don't want it to seem like I'm singling out Albert Pojols. He just happens to be the latest recipient of these outrageous baseball contracts. Pojols seems like a nice guy and you can't dispute the numbers that he puts up year after year. I was personally impressed with his three home-run performance in Game 5 of this year's World Series (the only other players ever to do this were Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson).

Speaking of Babe Ruth, arguably the greatest player ever, he earned $785,000 over his entire career. Some of the modern players earn that much by the seventh inning stretch on Opening Day!

It just seemed like yesterday when we saw the first one million dollar baseball contract. Depending on which source you reference, the first $1 million man was either Nolan Ryan or Dave Parker. There is a contract  technicality that could give the honor to either player.

As a kid back in the 70's, I used to like to watch "The Six Million Dollar Man". Steve Austin could see for miles and throw about 2000 miles per hour with his bionic body parts. But his $6 million price tag pales in comparison to the professional athletes of today.

I'm sure, as new superstars are born, there will be even more lucrative contracts. I wonder if we'll live to see the first billion dollar man? It could happen.......

kw