General Forum

Average Minor League salary is $91K.    Not sure how that is calculated.   Do they include the kid signed for a million and everyone is getting $35K?     Yes, you will not make money working at a minor park.   A lot of those jobs, especially office jobs,  are given to non-paid interns.    That's why I make sure to tip when eating at a concession at minor parks  ( rarely do I see a major league game).

The one thing I like to add to this conversation when it comes up wherever it does is this:

How many people do their job? (Pro sports athlete, that is)

How many people do any other job?

The NFL is the largest of the big 4 sports, and they have less than 1,700 people playing at the NFL level any given Sunday. I know there are more than 1,700 people doing the job I do (at this level) around the world. If you're truly THAT elite at doing what you do, I believe you should be paid accordingly.

My only problem with the big bucks is when players (and coaches sometimes) get the big contracts of guaranteed money, then their heads go into the clouds and they start phoning it in, not giving it their all.

I work for the Government and I know people who have been phoning it in and not giving their all for going on 30 years.

I don't have a problem with player salaries.  They only get paid what people are willing to pay them.  If someone told me they'd give me $10 million a year to do what I do, would I turn them down?  Nope.

And then to top it off these players make even MORE money getting paid to put their signatures on small pieces of rectangular cardboard that idiots like myself buy. 

A few points.

Although I know minor life is really tough, most players don't spend a decade there. I won't do research, but getting drafted at 18, most players probably make the Show by the time they're 25. Many are drafted at 22. Yes, there are some that take longer, but 10 years has got to be on the high end. And if $91,000 is truly the average, well, that's pretty good. But I bet a small minority of bonus babies drives that way up.

I don't really begrudge them the money. They make what we're willing to pay. And we're willing to pay more and more. Yes, I know the public doesn't pay the salaries directly, but we pay them indirectly. If attendance were to drop 50%, salaries would plummet. It's just a reflection of what society values, unfortunately. We all draw our lines in different places, and that's ok. I can still cringe a little when the worst player on a club makes half a million dollars a year.

Sure, there are only 1700 NFL players, and fewer baseball players. But they really are the very best in the world, even #25 on the roster. They are exceptional athletes. I wonder if there are 1700 truly exceptional grade school teachers out there. Maybe. Probably. I don't know. I just know that I wish we valued teachers, police officers, fire fighters, public interest lawyers, nurses, and dozens of other professions more.

Cub fan nitpicking. Sandberg didn't retire near the end of his skills. He was 34. He was in a slump, like he was every April and May, but probably had four or five good years left in him. His two years after he returned weren't bad at all, especially the second one. I always wish he hadn't retired the first time. That extra year and 3/4 (about 250 games) of stats would have put him over the top as the one of the best three or four second basemen in history. Thirty-five or so more homers. Another 100 RBI. Another 120 runs. As it is, he's still top ten, but there's much room for debate.

Anyway, it'd be interesting to see what it would be like without a minimum salary. I think we'd have the same players doing just as well, all thinking they were setting themselves up for the big payday in the future.

Whatever, I'll keep going to games, watching them on t.v. and buying little pieces of cardboard with pictures of people who play games.

v3

Who can live off a paltry half mill per year? Oh, the injustice...

 I don't mind the salaries for the most part.   My only problem is that they have to get "meal money" too.

V3, I think you misread the Sandburg comment. He said "nowhere near the end of his playing ability". Or maybe I misread your reply!!

V3, I understand everything you typed and respect your opinion, but you are missing something. There are 100's of thousands of baseball players in the minor leagues throughout North America. Just because an MLB team drafts a person doesn't mean they will ever play for an MLB team. They may spend their entire healthy playing career bouncing from MiLB team to MiLB team in different levels and different leagues. Just with the levels I know of, there is Rookie A level (such as Appalachian League & Gulf Coast League), A level, AA level, AAA level, and then there are the leagues in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. There are more that I can't name off the top of my head, plus the South American leagues that have minor affiliations with MLB teams. I know that just in my state of NC, there are at least a dozen MiLB teams ranging across the whole spectrum of the A leagues.

JUST for my local MiLB team (Burlington Indians in the Appy League), there are only about 5 players that ever made it to the big leagues for a long time. Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez are the biggest names to ever come through here. I believe C.C. Sabathia played his first year here too. There were 2 other pitchers that played for Burlington in the late 90's that made it to MLB also. I worked for Burlington the year Cleveland drafted P Aaron Laffey in the 1st round. I saw his first several starts in the MiLB. He ended up playing in MLB for the Nationals but only for one or two years before he was gone from the MLB. I don't know if he even went back to the minors, or just retired. I know there are many players that started at Burlington that never got past the AA Level, but they kept playing b/c they loved the game and that was their life.

I totally agree with you about everything you said.

On top of that, my Mom works for the government too. She is a rural mail carrier with USPS, but she has gotten way more involved the past several years. She got started working into the Union and has now worked her way up to VP of the State's Rural Carriers Union. The only extra money she gets for that position is travel expenses when she has to go to or lead meetings, BUT she also has to take days off from work to make those meetings!