Published: December 16, 2008 11:39 am      

It’s a numbers game in the sports world

salaries can sound like nails on a chalkboard

For the most part, Major League Baseball’s winter meetings last week in Las Vegas were pretty quiet.

But of the few events that did make headlines, one thing’s for certain. Some people got paid — in a big way.

CC Sabbathia, the league’s hottest pitcher in the second half of last season who contended for the NL Cy Young award, is now its richest. The left-hander signed a reported seven-year, $161 million deal with the New York Yankees, the highest in league history for a pitcher. His 11-2 record down the stretch for the Milwaukee Brewers put him into a financial stratosphere only the richest of teams were going to compete in.

Other notable signings include Francisco Rodriguez to the New York Mets for a reported three-year, $37 million deal, Raul Ibanez to the reigning World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies for 3 years at $30 million and ex-Toronto Blue Jay A.J. Burnett who also signed with the Yankees for five years and $82.5 million.

With all of these lucrative contracts being flung around like paper airplanes amid the country’s economic turmoil, it begs just one question. How do you, Mr. Average Worker, stack up to some of sports richest athletes?

Taking the top 10 highest-paid U.S. athletes and comparing them to average United States workers, the numbers are astonishing, even comical.

According to the United States’ Census Bureau documents released for the fiscal years of 2006 to 2007, the average household in the U.S. earned $50,233 each year. On average, men made $43,460 and women earned $35,102 before taxes. Just 1.93 percent of households in the U.S. made over $250,000 each year.

12.3 percent of residents were reported to be living under the poverty line, a federally set amount that fluctuates each year. In 2007, the number was $10,000 for a single person living alone, $14,000 for two people and $17,600 to support three.

In October of this year, CNN published a report by Careerbuilder.com that gave the average starting salaries of five of the most popular academic programs among 2008 college graduates.

The report said that a biology major who enters the field can expect to earn who enters the field can expect to earn nearly $38,896 before taxes her first year. For business administration majors, the average starting salary was upwards of $57,132. Computer science majors can expect to make close to $47,000 and elementary education majors came in at $29,414 for their first year. Those with nursing degrees on average earned $46,153.

In the same month, Sports Illustrated released the facts and figures of the top 10 highest-paid athletes in the United States. The numbers include salaries, winnings and endorsements in the last calendar year.

First on the list is professional golfer Tiger Woods, who earned over $127 million in the last year. Next was fellow golfer Phil Mickelson, who brought in $62 million after winning $10 million on the course and cashing in on several corporate sponsorship deals. Cleveland Cavaliers forward Lebron James was third on the list at $40 million, and boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. was fourth at $40.2 million. Fifth on the list was Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant at $35.4 million and former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal of the Phoenix Suns, coming in behind him tied for sixth place with New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez at $35 million apiece. Eighth on the list was Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett at $31 million and Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning was in at ninth with $30.5 million. Rounding out the top 10 was Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter at $30 million.

Quick comparisons among these figures can be done relatively easy, but let’s see how the numbers can break down even further.

Woods made $127 million last year. That equates to roughly $347,945 per day. At the current rate set by Career Builder for the biologist, he would have to work 8.9 years to reach the same level of pay Woods earns in a single day. The elementary teacher would have to work 11.8 years to make that same amount. Matching Woods for an entire year, the same elementary school teacher would have to work 4,317 years at their salary to make $127 million. Talk about nails on a chalkboard.

It gets even more fun.

Third on the list was James, at $40 million. During the 2007-08 NBA season, James scored 2,250 points. That means that for every point scored, James earned roughly $17,700. With two three-point shots, James made more money than the nurse and computer scientist combined all year. James is 23 years old.

At his current pace, Alex Rodriguez, who set the bar for maximum contracts in Major League baseball, will earn slightly under half a billion dollars during his 24-year career assuming he plays out his latest 10-year, $270 million contract in New York. Last season, the Yankees slugger finished with a .302 batting average, 35 home runs and 103 RBIs in 138 total games played.

So, in 2008, Rodriguez collected a cool $1 million for each home run he hit. He also had 510 at-bats, meaning that even a one-pitch ground ball out was worth $68,627. Rodriguez possibly made more money in 10 seconds than one of Career Builder’s business administration majors could have made in his first year on the job.

There are 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds in a non-leap year. If the average male, according to the U.S. Census, works 40 hours per week for one full year (2,080 hours), he makes just under $21 per hour.

In the same time, Phil Mickelson makes $7,077 for every hour of the day — no matter what day. If he were to get paid on the same 40-hour clock, it would equate to around $29,807 per hour.

At $31 million a year, Garnett makes a tad under a dollar per second of every day.

These situations are endless and could go on and on, but the point is that despite a disgruntled economy, people will continue to spend whatever, whenever on sports. These athletes, in a sense, have given capitalism a whole new name.

Left up to debate is whether this kind of money given to athletes is healthy for society or if the disparity does more harm than good. Is the world a better place for having Tiger Woods? It would be difficult to find many who feel it isn’t. The inspiration he gives to people around the world has appeared to be limitless. It seems it’s the system, the machine that fuels the sports world that people have the most problem with.

But whatever opinions exist, the beauty of democracy allows that freedom of expression to prevail.

And that, most argue, is considered priceless.