I think that it is absolutely sick how so many athletes are getting paid so much for what they do. I did say that they performed difficult athletic feats, but a couple of events a week for up to 10 years does not constitute that they deserve five hundred times more than what the average blue collar person earns. Of course, the blue-collar man is not on TV and doesn't get the big shoe deals. The worst part of it all is that the athletes are complaining that they do not get paid enough.

Scott Boras, Alex Rodriguez's agent, is asking for an escalator clause in A-Rod's new contract. That means that if the average salary of the MLB raises, so does Rodriguez's. That is on top of the $20 million he is demanding. If Kevin Brown wants $105 million for seven years we give it to him, and we throw away our Rangers, Marlins, and Padres jerseys.

In baseball, and in all other team sports, free agency has ruined tea

Even with the amount of money the players are making for a salary, it is not enough for them. Players keep getting more sponsors and endorsment deals. Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players ever, has his own clothing line under Nike, and he said that the NBA could not use his image for their ads, only Nike could. Tiger Woods is also a very good athlete. He is fighting with the PGA over whether or not they could use his image for promotions. He also wants TV money from the tour. During this summer he got into a bug dispute with Titleist, one of his biggest sponsors, because he started using a Nike Ball. Rumors also circled around that Eldrick, who reportedly, made a $105 million contract with Nike for using their ball and other apparel. Alex Rodriguez is trying to put a stipulation in his contract saying that he could get room in the front office so that he could run his apparel company and other businesses on top of the $200 million and escalator clauses he's asking for in the contract.

The pay just keeps rising and rising. Back in 1930 Babe Ruth was the highest paid baseball player ever at $80,000 for that year. In 1951 Joe DiMaggio was the highest paid player ever at $100,000. Then 25 years later Koufax and Drysdale put an end to the old way of doing things by having an agent negotiate a $1,000,000 deal to be split between the two of them. In the 80s Ryan got a million for himself. Then, within a five year span we had the first $50 million contract in baseball, the first $100 million cantract and several players racing for the first $200 million contract, and it is not going to stop when it gets there. It will keep rising and rising until a team's payroll will be over the amount of the Gross National Product of every country except the united stated combined. Its not just baseball either. Manchester United, the top team in the English Premier soccer league, has a payroll nearing $1 billion. That is the most of any team, anywhere, ever.

There was a movie that came out in 1998 called "Baseketball" that sums up my wishes for the future. In it people get disgusted with what sports are becoming, and they end up giving up on them. Then, two men come up with a game at a party they crashed, and it ended up sweeping the nation. However, they put bylaws that said players couldn't change teams, teams

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1585
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)