The question at hand has been a topic on my mind since late November, 2007. At this time one of baseballs most prolific stars, Alex Rodriguez was signing his fresh ten year, two hundred and seventy five million dollar contract with the New York Yankees. This was also the time when I got the pleasure of attending my first Yankee game. At ten years old, I got my first eye opening experience at the world of professional sports. Stepping foot into the coliseum like stadium, with over fifty thousand screaming fans, the field trimmed to a shimmering perfection, and ice cream and hot dogs as far as the eye can see, was the start of my everlasting love for sports. For a sports fan, and a child none the less, this feeling can only be described as overwhelmed with joy. Though as any adult sports enthusiast knows, it costs a pretty penny to have an experience at a major league game. The fans are overcharged for everything, resulting in bulk sums of revenue for the ball club hosting the game. This is the cause of the players making radically extreme amounts of money. The question is not do the clubs have the money to pay the athletes, but should the system as a whole change the over inflated bubble that is major league baseball. This starts with players making less money, creating a chain reaction to eventually lower the cost to attend and enjoy a game. 

To accurately answer the question at hand, It was necessary to research and understand every side of this issue. Using these three sources, this question will be answered. My first source is an article from the Huffington Post, called "Visualizing the Yearly Salary of Professional Athletes". This article explains how salaries vary among professional sports, and how much money one would expect to earn from an average career in one of these sports. The article varies to show the highest end of the spectrum in the sports world, to those just entering the professional level, and their starting salaries. This sparked my interest because it is not withheld to one category, instead it gives you a big picture scenario to understand how finances work in professional sports. The Huffington Post is undoubtedly considered a viable source for information, and this article came from their online sports section. After reading the article it was clear to me that there was no bias in the piece, as everything was laid out for the reader, and most of the piece was chock full of facts. 

The second piece of text I analyzed for this piece was another online article, this time from a well known sports site called Bleacher Report. This site is an everyday stop for sports enthusiasts as they are constantly releasing new information about everything happening in sports. This article was titled "Two Sides to Every Coin: Are Professional Athletes Overpaid?", and was written by their feature columnist, Chris Mueller. Bleacher Report was interested in how the public would react to the article, and what side most people would take on the issue. This piece poses an argument, but a side is never taken by the author, as to leave it open ended for the reader. The article discusses the history of sports salaries, and how they have changed over time. This piece also includes the comparison of multiple professional sports and how they are paid across the whole spectrum. This article was a good source of information and gave a new look at how salaries may have inflated like they did. 

My third piece of research for this topic was found in the Thomas Cooper Library data base, titled "Show me the money!". This piece was published over fifteen years ago, so I was on the fence to say this information was credible. But upon reading the text I found that the information, though outdated, was still perfectly credible because of the use of pure facts, and research done by the writer. Not only does this article discuss the salaries of professional athletes, but it also goes in depth about why consumers pay the money to see the game, and why they put up with the constantly increasing prices. This article was posted as current events in a Weekly Reader, and is an incredibly informative piece of writing. The writer poses both sides of the argument to give the reader a full understanding of what really goes on. The article withholds some of the most important facts that could be used for my paper, and was very important when researching for this topic area. Although this piece was not all perfect; there was a slight bias towards the opinion that athletes are paid too much, and there was an emphasis put on the information proving this side of the argument.

This question has intrigued me for years, and I would like to find evidence to give me a definite answer to it. This topic can be argued because it is all based on perspective. On one had the millions these men make seem like astronomical numbers to those with less income, but in comparison to those wall street millionaires, these numbers look like an everyday thing. Most of the information in these sources have pointed to the fact that athletes are paid too much, and they are not worth the money they are given, but that too is a matter of perspective. When you consider how much money the ball club is making from their playing, maybe their salary doesn't seem so crazy anymore. These different perspectives have shifted and molded my own personal perspective, and I need to continue with my research to convince myself of a definite answer. I decided to revise my research question from do professional athletes make too much money, to do professional baseball players make too much money. I did this to narrow my research and because baseball players make the most on average of all the professional sports. This topic is still close to my heart and I look forward to continuing my research and hopefully coming to a definite conclusion. 

