Kudos to Matt Snyder for debunking the idea that baseball players are overpaid:

By no means do I think that the average fan who feels he’s being priced out shouldn’t complain. Go ahead and complain away. I’m just telling those who wish to complain to remember that the player salaries aren’t the reason. It’s the game’s wild popularity and people’s willingness to pay the huge prices that are pricing you out, not the salaries.

Salaries follow ticket prices, not the other way around. He also makes this point on why we seem obsessed with sports salaries:

How often do you actually see salaries anywhere but in sports? We report on contracts as part of our day-to-day operations as baseball writers, but that doesn’t seem to happen in other industries. Maybe people only complain mostly because these are the only gigantic salary figures they’re seeing on a daily basis and would nail actors/musicians more if they saw it more often?

Of course, actor salaries are tied to particular projects, especially since the demise of the studio system. Plenty of actors get one big paycheck, only to never see another one the rest of their careers. If someone can hang around baseball for three or four years, they are likely set for life.