The question at hand has been on my mind since late November, 2007. At this time, one of baseballs most prolific stars, Alex Rodriguez, was signing his fresh 10 year, $275 million contract with the New York Yankees. This was also the year that I got the pleasure of attending my first Yankee game. At ten years old, I had an eye opening experience into the world of professional sports. Stepping foot into the coliseum like stadium, with over fifty thousand screaming fans, a field trimmed to a shimmering perfection, 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 overwhelming joy. Though as any adult sports enthusiast knows, it costs a pretty penny to have an experience at a major league game, which is why it would be beneficial to the public if the athletes were paid less. 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. I am qualified to write about this topic as I have been a sports enthusiast all my life, and am a college level writer. 

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 one would expect to earn from an average career in any 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. Statistically the NBA pays its players the most per year, averaging $5.15 million per year, while the MLB comes in second with an average of $3.2 million per year. 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. These lump sums of money have gotten so astronomical that if we stopped playing professional sports for a year, we could nearly pay back the national debt owed to china. It is important for the average person to see how out of proportion these salaries have gotten, so we can level the playing field as to who holds all the money in our country. The Huffington Post is undoubtedly considered a viable source for information, and this article came from their online sports section, though there was no specific author listed. 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 was another online article, this time from a well known sports site called Bleacher Report. This site is an everyday stop for sports enthusiasts since they are constantly releasing new information about the sports world. This article was titled "Two Sides to Every Coin: Are Professional Athletes Overpaid?", and was written by their feature columnist, Chris Mueller. Mueller has written hundreds of articles for this site and has upheld his credibility throughout his writing career. 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 argument is as follows: are professional athletes overpaid, and are they worth the money they make.  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 reliable. Upon reading the text I found that the information, though outdated, was still perfectly dependable because of the use of pure facts, and research done by the author. Not only does this article discuss the salaries of professional athletes, but it also goes into depth about why consumers pay money to see the game, and why they put up with constantly increasing prices. This article was posted as current events in a Weekly Reader, and is an incredibly informative piece. The writer poses both sides of the argument, giving 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. Like the average American, the author believes it should not cost a small fortune to enjoy a sports game, and further more the athletes playing should not be making more money than 95% of the country. So I could understand why the bias is the way it shows in the piece. 

This question has intrigued me for years, and I would like to find evidence that gives me a definite answer to it. This topic can be argued because it is all based on perspective. On one hand 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/basketball players make too much money. I did this to narrow my research and because basketball, and 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. 

