Scoring the big money: do pro athletes deserve so many millions? Here's how you might be responsible for Derek Jeter's paycheck. (sports).

MRS. KRAM WAS A VERY GOOD TEACHER. Like all teachers, good or bad, though, she didn't make a whole lot of money. Reading about exploding salaries in sports, she once asked me, since I write about baseball, "Why should athletes make so much more than teachers? Teachers are certainly more important to society than baseball players."

"When people start paying to watch teachers teach," I told her, "their salaries will get closer to what players make."

That's what it boils down to, as salaries are now at or near record levels in the major sports leagues. This baseball season, the average player is making $2.4 million, an all-time high. In three games, he earns what a typical high school teacher makes in a year, $45,000. More and more, athletes seem to be living on another cash-abundant planet, but there's an argument to be made that they deserve all those dollars.

SOURCES OF CASH

Players have become more like entertainers, at least in pay. When Britney Spears appears in a concert, her fans shell out $40 or more for a ticket. She receives either a guaranteed amount or a percentage of revenue from ticket sales.

Look at baseball. Major League Baseball's 30 teams had approximately $3.5 billion in revenue last year. They spent about $2.1 billion, or 60 percent, on players' salaries and benefits. Players receive the bulk of that money because they are the attraction, especially stars such as home-run king Barry Bonds, ace pitcher Pedro Martinez, and heart-stopping shortstop Derek Jeter. The stars help lure more than 70 million fans to ballparks each season.

The fans, including millions of teens, in turn pay about $1.4 billion for the baseball tickets alone. Once they're in the park, they spend even more on food and souvenirs. And they look at the billboards plastered around the stadium, which advertisers pay for, piling up more money in the major-league coffers.

The players are also responsible for the $558 million that national TV networks Fox and ESPN pay on average each year for the rights to televise the baseball games. Local stations pay an additional $571 million to show games.

And that's not all. Buy your favorite team's cap or a star's jersey at a store or on a team Web site, and you'll also help make Derek Jeter just a little richer. Major League Baseball gets a percentage of the price. Then, like the national TV money, merchandise revenue is divided equally among the 30 teams.

But just as teens have helped pump up sports salaries, they have the power to deflate them, too. The sports leagues have been worried about losing young fans. Attendance and participation in traditional sports have dipped as skateboarding, snowboarding, and X Games-style sports have boomed.

Young fans, of course, become older fans. If they are lost to the traditional sports early in their lives, they are very likely lost forever. Not only that, but their children are less likely to become fans, and the sport slowly dies out.

Little wonder, then, that baseball wants teenagers to buy tickets and go to the ballpark, watch games on TV (the higher the ratings, the more teams can charge for commercials), visit teams' Web sites, and buy jerseys and caps.

Baseball's promotional efforts may be paying off. League officials were encouraged last year by a huge increase in the number of viewers ages 12 to 17 who watched the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The rating was up 55 percent from the 2000 World Series.

TROUBLE BREWING

But for pro sports, more money often means more problems. Early on in this baseball season, players and owners weren't guaranteeing that the World Series would be played this October. The two sides have been engaged in negotiations for a new labor agreement. In baseball history, negotiations have most often led to games being canceled.

A labor dispute in 1994 led to the premature end of the season and the cancellation of the World Series. That dispute and the talks this year have centered on who gets to control the billions of dollars. The owners want stars like Alex Rodriguez to get paid less so the money can be spread to teams in smaller cities with smaller revenues. Teams like that are finding it tough to pay top players and compete.

As it is now, the Yankees' players--including Derek Jeter at $19 million a year--make up an all-time high payroll approaching $130 million. The Oakland Athletics, who have lost to the Yankees in the playoffs the past two years, have a payroll of just under $40 million.

But don't feel too sorry for the guys who play for the Athletics. They still make more than teachers.

Slim Chance

The odds are against high school players making it to the pros, let alone cashing in for millions. Here are the estimated ratios of male athletes playing these sports in high school who will eventually be drafted.

Baseball: 50 in 10,000

Hockey: 40 in 10,000

Football: 9 in 10,000

Basketball: 3 in 10,000

Source: National Collegiate Athletic Association 

MURRAY CHASS is a sportswriter covering baseball for The New York Times.

RELATED ARTICLE: The money men.

Here's the breakdown on the top moneymakers in each of the major leagues--based on the average yearly salary of the latest reported contracts--and how those millions relate to the real world.

Baseball: Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers

Annual pay: $25 million

League average: $2.4 million

Fast fact: To pay Rodriguez, you'd have to give him about $48 a minute around the clock, 24/7, for a whole year.

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NFL: Drew Bledsoe, Buffalo Bills (formerly of the New England Patriots)

Annual pay: $10 million

League average: $1.1 million

Fast fact: Limited only by garage space, Bledsoe could purchase a new Ford Explorer SUV for each day of the year.

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NBA: Kevin Garnett, Minnesota Timberwolves

Annual pay: $21 million

League average: $4.2 million

Fast fact: Relative to the income of a typical family household, a $200 PlayStation 2 would seem to Garnett to cost 49 cents.

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NHL: Jaromir Jagr, Washington Capitals

Annual pay: $11 million

League average: $1.4 million

Fast fact: Jagr makes in on, game about what a typical surgeon earns as an annual salary ($137,000).

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