Thirty years ago, the average baseball player received $37,000 a year. These days that's just peanuts. In 2000, $2 million became the average. Some players make enough to buy everyone in their home stadium a hot dog at every game! Here are the players with the top yearly salaries:

1. Alex Rodriguez $25.2 million

2. Manny Ramirez $20 million

3. Derek Jeter $18.9 million

4. Sammy Sosa $18 million

5. Jeff Bagwell and Carlos Delgado $17 million

Source: The Associated Press

Daily News from TIME for Kids

March 30, 2001 World Report