IT'S JUST A GAME: AVERAGE FAN CAN ALMOST RELATE TO `POOR' BUCS

"Look in our parking lot, and you see a lot of Hyundais and Geo Storms. You don't see a lot of Lexuses and Mercedes."-- Pittsburgh catcher Keith Osik, whose entire team salary is less than the salary of Chicago White Sox slugger Albert Belle.

As if American sports' fans needed another reason to wonder what in the world is wrong with the formerly great sport -- and now business -- of Major League Baseball, the ludicrous contract of Albert Belle should suffice.

Belle, one player on one very rich team, will receive (not earn) $10 million dollars -- this year -- for playing a game. The Pirates current roster of 25 players will get paid almost a million dollars less than Belle this season at $9,071,667. Yes, that's right, one player will be paid more money than an entire clubhouse of players in Pittsburgh.

Granted, Bell hits the cork out of the ball and is the best run-producing batter in baseball. But he's also got the personality of a brick.

The Pirates, unable to retain any talent they develop because of pathetic attendance in a town that could give two flips about baseball, are a collection of professional has-beens and nobodys. Look at a Pittsburgh box score and tell me if you know the first names of more than three Pirates.

I just don't understand how professional sports players justify making the money they do.

Now I'm sure Belle doesn't think much beyond, "See baseball... Hit baseball hard... Curse at reporters." But how can the guy sleep at night knowing he's considered more valuable than an entire roster of players.

Belle is a fantastic baseball player, but he's not worth $10 million. In my line of thinking, no human being -- and especially a baseball player -- is worth $10 million. Heck, Steve Austin was only the "Six Million-Dollar Man", and at least he had a bionic eye, arms and legs.

According to a report released by management and player sources, a record 280 baseball players are making over $1 million. Of that number, 197 are being paid over $2 million.

If I understand this correctly, a good portion of the American public (earning $25,000 annually) will have to work around 40 years to earn what over 36 percent of the baseball players today are paid in only one year.

That's about as ridiculous as one player raking in more dough than an entire team.

But what makes this even more maddening is that several of those people earning an average salary are die-hard baseball fans that fork over $10-$20 a ticket several times a year to watch players like Belle.

I used to be like this but I find it difficult to go to any professional sporting event and spend my money on a game that no longer seems to appreciate me.

The players think they are bigger than the game. But if they would take a close look at the 1997 Pittsburgh Pirates, they might see that the fans are still the biggest part of the game.

Pittsburgh quit supporting the Pirates in the mid-80's and even with divisional championship teams in the early-90's couldn't sell out Three Rivers Stadium during the playoffs.

With the team losing money, marquee players such as Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Doug Drabek went where multi-million dollar contracts awaited them. Places where fans still blindly walked through the turnstiles with their wallets wide open.

As the players on the Pirates' roster this year are learning, if the fans don't come to the park and spend their money, there won't be a whole lot of dough to spread around to the players.

But don't cry for them too much. They may not be driving Mercedes, but I bet those Geo Storms are paid off.

Rus Baer is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.