ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALARIES ARE UP again in baseball, with 241 players at millionaire status.
Major-league baseball salaries nearly are back to the level they reached before the strike, and Detroit's Cecil Fielder again is the highest-paid player, at $9.2 million.
The average salary was $1,176,967 on Opening Day, according to a study released Tuesday by The Associated Press, an increase of 9.9 percent from last year, when the average was $1,071,029.
In 1994, the last season before the 232-day strike, the average was $1,188,679 on Opening Day, only 1 percent higher than this year's average.
Total payroll was $902.26 million, 1.1 percent higher than the $892.15 million total at the start of the 1995 season.
The New York Yankees had the highest payroll, at $52.9 million, followed by Baltimore ($49.4 million), Atlanta ($47.9 million) and Cleveland ($46.2 million, up from $35.1 million). The Indians already have sold every available seat for home games this season.
Montreal had the lowest payroll, at $15.4 million. Others near the bottom were Kansas City ($18.5 million) and Oakland ($19.4 million, a decrease from $35.9 million).
Toronto had the biggest drop, falling from $49.4 million to $28.4 million.
Following the strike, the average salary dropped 9.9 percent on Opening Day last year, the first significant decrease since before the free-agent era began in 1976. Teams used 28-man rosters for the first three weeks of the 1995 season instead of the usual 25, causing a more significant drop in the average. When rosters went back to the normal limit May 16, the average salary was $1,132,571, according to management's Player Relations Committee, and payrolls totaled $873.49 million. The Opening Day average this year was up 3.9 percent over those figures.
Fielder tops the pay chart at $9,237,500, including his $7.2 million base salary and a prorated share of his signing bonus.
San Francisco's Barry Bonds is second, at $8,416,667, followed by Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr. ($7.5 million).
The number of $1 million players, which dropped from 265 in 1994 to 215 on Opening Day last year, went back up to 241. The millionaires total peaked at 273 in 1993.
Figures for the study were obtained by the AP from management and player sources and include 768 players on active rosters and disabled lists when the season began.
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