The Phillies might not be near the top of any batting statistics so far this season but they are succeeding at something at least.
Getting paid!
The Phillies broke the Top 10 of ESPN The Magazine’s Sportingintelligence Global Salary Survey for the first time. The study was posted to ESPN.com Tuesday morning.
The annual list of the franchises that fork over the most dough in salaries places the Phillies at ninth in the world -- that’s right the whole world!
ESPN ranked teams based off the average weekly pay for players. At about $112,000 a week, the Phillies placed just behind soccer team Bayern Munich. Last season the Phils were 13th on the list.
The only other American teams -- seven of the Top 10 teams are international soccer clubs with Barcelona coming out on top -- to join the Phils in the Top 10 were the Los Angeles Lakers (4th) and New York Yankees (6th).
Let’s forget that this is yet another example of the Yankees topping the Phightins (I’m still bitter over the 2009 World Series) and look at what it all means. The franchise that for years was mired in terrible seasons as ownership seemingly refused to pay for players now pays them at a clip that is unprecedented in the National League.
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The Phillies have forked over multi-million-dollar deal after multi-million-dollar deal to players. Add in that the team is full of older veterans and not many young (a.k.a. inexpensive) players, and the Top 10 placing makes sense.
Now if only the Phillies could buy us fans some happiness.
In case you were wondering, here is how the rest of the Philly 5 fared in the rankings: Sixers (23rd), Flyers (100th), Eagles (128th) and Union (255th).
