Alex Rodriguez makes too much money. Any reasonable person, even a sports fan, ought to acknowledge that Rodriguez’s $275 million contract is excessive and morally difficult to justify. A-Rod’s salary, remarkable but not unique, represents the consequences of a larger and more disturbing system of misplaced values.
The 2013 Major League Baseball season began this past Monday. With it marks the halfway point in Rodriguez’s 10-year contract. To review, Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees’ third baseman, is making $275 million over 10 years. His contract, signed in 2007, was the largest in baseball at the time.
Rodriguez is getting old though, and he no longer holds the same promise as at the time of his signing. At that time, the $275 million was rationalized by expectations that he would break all sorts of home run and World Series records. This would generate attention, attendance and income.
A-Rod is 37 years old. In sports years, that’s like 85. When his contract wraps up in five years he’ll be a dinosaur. By all counts, he’s already on his way out. He’s sat out through many games in recent seasons, due to injuries and surgeries, and his home run record has been going down.
Still, what troubles me about Rodriguez’s salary isn’t that he is not “earning” it by hitting enough home runs or doubles. Even if he were to get a grand slam every at-bat (is that possible?), does any individual’s ability to slam a leather ball with a wooden stick really deserve $275 million?
A fair appreciation of today’s economic and welfare climate makes it difficult to justify such an exorbitant contract. You don’t need to be a socialist to see that his salary is wildly disproportionate to economic trends of the last few years. I don’t intend to pull out all the depressing or looming stats. It’s sufficient to say that according to the USDA, 16.7 million American children under 18 don’t get enough food to be healthy. That’s just one example of where $275 million could make a big difference.
His earnings are also grossly disproportionate to either his responsibility or the good he contributes to society. To put things in perspective, the president of the United States of America makes $400,000 a year. To relativize it over 10 years, A-Rod is still making 68 times more than the president.
It’s not like A-Rod is a beacon of good behavior either. His reputation has been tarnished by numerous shady encounters with strippers. On top of that, in 2009 Rodriguez admitted publicly that he used performance-enhancing drugs when he was playing for the Texas Rangers.
Those who disagree might argue that A-Rod should not be blamed for reaping the benefits of a larger industry. It’s a matter of supply and demand, they might argue. A-Rod fills a need. If people stop caring about baseball, he’ll stop earning the big bucks. Until then, why shouldn’t he, and the many other million-dollar-deal athletes like him, profit?
This argument has merit.
A-Rod’s outrageous contract is significant in how it reflects a wider, more problematic, societal trend. Indeed, I have no axe to grind against A-Rod as an individual. A-Rod only earns the big bucks because we, as consumers, enable him, and others like him, to do so.
Some might disagree and argue that A-Rod deserves every penny for being the sheer athlete that he is. That’s an argument for which I have little sympathy. Sure, entertainment has value. Pastimes have value. Even athleticism (possibly) has value. But $275 million? Really?