The recent discussion on most sports shows like Sports Center has been Major League Baseball Player Albert Pujols leaving the St. Louis Cardinals and signing a $245 million dollar ten-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels.
According to espn.go.com, Pujols will be making $.79 per second, $47 per minute, and $2,851 an hour for the next ten years. By making $2,851 an hour Pujols will be making 393.24 times more than the Kansas minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Along with this outlandish salary, Pujols turned down the Cardinals offer of $220 million dollars over ten years because it wasn’t enough. According to usgov.about.com, the average income of a person with a doctorate is 3.4 million dollars, a person with a master’s degree makes 2.5 million dollars in their lifetime. Pujols will be making $24.5 million dollars a year. In one year Pujols will be making 9.8 times what the average American with a master’s degree makes in their entire life.
Pujols is not the only culprit of demanding an outrageous salary. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had a $252 million ten-year contract with the Texas Rangers in 2001, then he signed a $275 million ten-year contract with the New York Yankees in 2008.
Other professional sports have dealt with athletes demanding a bigger salary. The NFL and NBA have both experienced lockouts in the past year. Athletes have banned together to boycott playing their sport until they are paid more. According to eHow.com, the average NFL player makes $1.1 million a year. The NFL also has a price cap of $127 million. The team must fund all of its players with this $127 million which helps keep the salaries somewhat under control. Perhaps the MLB should take some lessons. Pujols and Rodriguez both make more than what an entire NFL team can spend.
The most recent lockout was the NBA lockout. According to nbasalaries.org, the average NBA player made $6 million in the 2010-11 season. How can these athletes complain about not getting enough money when they are making more in one year than the average American makes in their lifetime.
It seems like these athletes need a reality check. Maybe they should look at the salaries of average Americans and realize how ungrateful they seem when they are claiming that $6 million dollars or more a year is not enough. There are doctors that are trying to cure diseases such as cancer or diabetes who make less in their lifetime than these athletes make in a year. It seems kind of sad when there are people trying to save thousands of lives who make $3.4 million in their lifetime and then there are baseball players making $24.5 million dollars a year.