In 1930, when Babe Ruth signed a contract that paid him $80,000 a year. When Ruth was asked if he thought he deserved to be making more money than President Hoover, he said, “'Why not? I've had a better year than he has." In the 30's, the average salary yearly salary was $1,125. I learned a lot about the history of baseball by watching the series on t.v. by Ken Burns.
I just took a look at one of those inflation calculators. $80,000 would be worth $1,200,000 today. That surprises me. I thought all of those old timers played for peanuts.
Also, Strosburg in 2019 got $38 mil. and $175 total for the seven years of the contract, far above $1.2 mil. That's freakin' obscene.
I am of two minds on the amount of money: #1: That's an obscene amount for what they do. #2: We are a meritocracy. That's their share of what they have earned for the business. It's not coerced or stolen. Market Value ≠ Moral Value. What has always infuriated me is that those men (mostly) who were the pioneers and who paved the way often died impoverished through no fault of their own. Those who were raking in that kind of dough largely due to the efforts of their antecedents should have cut loose with 1% of it to provide reasonable care for those folks.