/puts down bowling ball
//picks up baseball

Wow. So Federer is the most hard working of these folks? Or is it Norm Duke? (i have no idea how this bowling things works)

And they still don't deserve it.
Although I never experienced it first hand, from what I have read the days when the athlete's take home pay was comparable to the average person's salary the players weren't engaging in dog fighting rings and other sorts of nonsense in the off season. They were out working at a real job.

And Nascar is not a sport - it is about five hours of making left turns.

I don't see a problem with this. If people didn't feel that an MLB player's pitch is worth over $20,000, people would not buy tickets.

I personally don't believe any of the major organized sports are worth what they pay players, and as such, I simply don't participate. If you agree, you need to join me. If you agree, but don't, you're implicitly saying that there's no problem whatsoever with these payscales.

@shepd: If only A-Rod pitched.... Alas, he just stands there, juiced muscles twitching at the sound of the crowd. (They know the crowd is talking about them)

@Vandelay Import Export:

It must really be terrible when those MLB and NASCAR owners break down your front door and force you to buy tickets and merchandise.

@MostlyHarmless: 2,360 frames is 236 games of bowling (10 frames = 1 game). I would probably say Norm Duke clearly takes the longest. In terms of overall physical demand, I would say Federer works the hardest, though 236 games would get tiring on the arm...

@Vandelay Import Export: I wanna see you drive in a non-airconditioned car in 100º heat for 4 hours pulling as hard as you can on a manually operated steering wheel while dealing with 7Gs. And then we can talk about what is and isn't a sport.

@NeverLetMeDown: I haven't been to a MLB game in over ten years (mostly had comp seats anyway) and haven't gotten any MLB branded stuff in the same amount of time.

As for Nascar, if I want to watch cars go by I can bike down to the Belt Parkway and I wouldn't want any sort of merchandise that would make me look like some sort of redneck even if I was given it for free.

@Vandelay Import Export: Capitalism says they deserve what someone will pay them. And someone will pay them waaaay too much

Some of you "haters" have it all messed up. If your company brings in X amount of dollars per year and you convince them that you working their is worth at least x% of that income whats the issue there? Its all about your worth people! If you really feel like an athlete should only make $50K a year in a company that only employees 2K people with net income in the hundreds of millions, then you just dont get it.

Look at the WNBA - their avg. salaries are 50K with the highest being 100K and you know why? Because their league doesn't generate the revenue to justify multimillion dollar contracts..

Federer and Woods numbers in particular are off. Both of these guys make much more money in endorsements than in winnings. Woods made $110 million last year and Federer $33 million and the majority of that was endorsements (especially in Woods case).

@bornonbord: What you say is true: Well I am not an idiot and only an idiot would drive around in a non-airconditioned car in 100º heat for 4 hours without any power steering.

@cynu414: Hey, if you can bowl a strike with a baseball, you've earned your 100k. :)

@Airjoe: [consumerist.com]

Meg/Ben - this is what I was talking about re: disemvoweling and/or banning. I just don't see it happening as much anymore.

@ncpeters: Though one can argue that they are only making that much money from endorsements as long as they remain top in their fields. A significant injury could sideline a player for years or end a career. As soon as an athlete stops playing forever the endorsements will start to dry up - it's just a matter of time. So being paid X amount In endorsement does hinge on your ability to play a sport well.

@dpfizzle: 28 games might be a match or two for Federer.

@Vandelay Import Export: Watching the belt parkway is like watching a parking lot.

@Vandelay Import Export: Touché.

I'm not an idiot, and only an idiot would run head-on into another idiot just because one of them has a ball in their hands.

I'm not an idiot, and only an idiot would swing at a ball thrown 100+ mph with a stick.

I'm not an idiot, and only and idiot would see how fast they could swim a mile in.

I'm not an idiot and only an idiot would run around for 2 hours trying to kick a ball into a net.

I'm not an idiot and only and idiot would try to hit a tiny ball with a stick into a hole twice it's size over 300 yards away.

I'm not an idiot and only an idiot would run 26.2 miles.

Only an idiot would have fun doing any of that stuff. But all of those idiots are athletes. Gee, guess I am an idiot.

@Vandelay Import Export: Don't get me wrong, I don't 'get' NASCAR, but that's no reason to call it idiotic.

@Vandelay Import Export:
I think athletes were always behaving badly; you just didn't have the media reporting the way they do now. I don't think that's just true of athletes; it's true of politicians, movie stars, singers, etc.

"Alex Rodriguez, MLB 6 pitches"

I assume that means 6 pitches as a batter... he does play defense too.

High five!
[media.photobucket.com]

@bobbycreekwater:
ITA. By the way, the most fun I ever had at a pro sports game was at a Phoenix Mercury/San Antonio Silver Stars Game. I paid $10 a ticket and, because we needed wheelchair access, was seated in a luxury box.

Our hockey players' salaries so low that none of them made the list? I'm not hating on hockey, I am sincerely curious.

This is not correct for athletes in sports leagues or otherwise under contract. They get paid regardless of whether they play or not, injured or not. It's actually kind of a pain in the ass for teams to have injured players because it's literally multiple millions of dollars just sitting on the sidelines/bench. Therefore, saying that it takes "6 pitches" or "4 snaps" isn't right. They're making money every second that they're under contract, it just so happens that some of those seconds involve actual sports play.

But the date-rapes? Free!

@pecan 3.14159265:
... or your ability to stay out of trouble. OJ was doing commercials well into his retirement; I particularly remember him in Hertz Rental commercials.

@tbax929:
Dang no-edit feature. I do know the difference between "our" and "are"!

@Vandelay Import Export:

So why do you care so much about the compensation structure of people who do something you don't care about?

@Airjoe: It gives Meg the chance to call up Alex, Ben, Tiger, LeBron, Rog, Tony & Norm and winnow a free dinner, followed by dancing the light fantastic until dawn, of course.
Unfortunately, Norm turned out to be about as good in the sack as you'd expect a "Norm" to be.

@Trai_Dep:

I've always thought that Kobe Bryant's conversation with his wife, where he essentially had to argue "honey, I swear, it was _consensual_ adultery," would have to rank as one of the most awkward in human history.

@bornonbord: What you say is true: Well I drive (pretty regularly) to visit my parents (4 hours) with my wife, 2 kids, and a screaming baby, not to mention the construction and police, and it's really not that tough of a drive most of the time. I take your point about the temperature and the 7Gs, but Vandelay has a very good point as well. I would love to see the Nascar drivers with a life-like baby doll in their car, and every so often the baby cries and they have to make a pit stop and change a diaper as fast as they can and get back on the road, now that would be great!

'm srry, bt ths s rlvnt hw?

@Trai_Dep: Hmmm. Pass.

@Vandelay Import Export:

Even the lowest-ranked NASCAR driver is still making at least double what you make in a year, and I'm sure they've got a hell of a lot more time off than you, so who is the real idiot in this situation?

@bmorg003: Ha! I agree. Why not make it a race away from the in-laws house, with the wife in the car saying "I really wish we would go back more often..."

@tbax929:
That's okay- it sounded like you lay claim to the sport-which I actually find endearing.
Hockey's one of the few sports I can watch with both love and interest nowadays.

@bornonbord: What you say is true: At least the facebookers are gone :P

@Vandelay Import Export: @latkadog: Depends what section of the Belt you're in.

This is one reason I don't want sports. If wanted to see a bunch of fags playing with their balls I'd watch Gay Porn.

@wjmorris3: Oh games. I thought it was 28 Matches. Nevermind.

@dougkern: Yes, because net worth is the one true measure of intelligence.

bah.. poker players can make over $100,000 on a single hand in the right cash game.

@Trai_Dep: That aint working! Thats the way you do it. Money for nothing and chicks for free.

@Airjoe: lol, disemvoweling. Good thing Consumerist posts information related to consumers and such, and never ignores tips with content or anything. Oh wait.

@cash_da_pibble:
It looks like Dany Heatley of Ottawa was the highest-paid NHL player, at $10 million last season.

@BrooklynKnight:
Lovely

@BrooklynKnight: In before ban hammer.

@torgonius: Warren Buffet can make $100k while sitting on the toilet, but we're talking about athletes here.