Letters

Baseball Salaries
I thought Tim Kurkjian's article on Chicago Cub second baseman Ryne Sandberg and increasingly outrageous baseball salaries was excellent (Rolling a 7, March 16). I admire Sandberg, and if anyone deserves to be the game's highest-paid player, he does. But $7 million! That's sick. These outrageous salary hikes must stop.
SETH L. FEIT
Schaumburg, Ill.

Minnesota Twins general manager Andy MacPhail has achieved great success in baseball at an extremely young age, but if he feels, as he says in your story, that his "three-year-old son could have made that deal" with Sandberg, perhaps the Cubs asked permission to interview the wrong MacPhail when they were looking for a G.M. last fall. Personally, I'm not sure that the younger MacPhail could have finalized the deal. After all, our meetings into the early hours of March 2 would have taken him way past his bedtime.
JIM TURNER
Agent for Ryne Sandberg
St. Louis

Coach K
One trait seems to wind its way through Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski's success—honesty (Blue Angel, March 16). He is honest with his players, their parents, the student body, his athletic director, the press and, most important, himself. Krzyzewski's philosophy is a breath of fresh air.
MARK DALE
Edmund, Okla.

I'm tired of hearing about what a great coach Mike Krzyzewski is. Let's get real. My mother could coach the players he gets at Duke. Also, what kind of coach allows his players, specifically Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley, to be such foul-mouthed crybabies? I can't imagine what they would have been like if they had lost a few more games.
DAN MURPHEY
Silver Spring, Md.

America's Greatest Athlete
I enjoyed Steve Wulf's POINT AFTER about Bo Jackson (March 16), but I disagree with Wulf when he says that Jackson is "the greatest athlete America has ever produced." That takes in a lot of territory. What about Jim Thorpe and Hobey Baker, multitalented, multisport performers from earlier eras? And in our own time, Rafer Johnson, the great decathlon champion? What about Al Oerter, gold medal winner in four Olympics? Or Jimmy Brown, who was a first-string All-America in two sports at Syracuse and is still regarded as the premier fullback of all time?
DAVID M. VARNER
Palm Coast, Fla.

Diamond Prices
Reading about Ryne Sandberg's four-year, $28.4 million contract reminded me of your April 20, 1987, story Baseball Salaries, in which you listed the salary of every major league ballplayer. The article included a graphic in which you named the highest-paid player at each position. Twenty-eight million dollars in '87 would have paid all of their salaries for one year, with $7.1 million to spare. By the way, the article also mentioned how the upward trend of salaries had "leveled off."

How about a then and now comparison of the highest-paid players by position?
MIKE CONTOS
Jacksonville, Ala.

•Here it is, as of March 27, with figures equaling each player's base salary, plus a prorated share of his signing bonus. Please note that Sandberg isn't in the lineup since his big salary doesn't kick in until next year.—ED.

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Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and should be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020-1393.

THEN		NOW
JIM RICE, RED SOX $2,412,500	LF	BARRY BONDS, PIRATES $4,700,000
RICKEY HENDERSON, YANKEES $1,670,000	CF	ANDY VAN SLYKE, PIRATES $4,250,000
DALE MURPHY, BRAVES $1,900,000	RF	BOBBY BONILLA, METS $5,800,000
MIKE SCHMIDT, PHILLIES $2,127,333	3B	KELLY GRUBER, BLUE JAYS $3,300,000
OZZIE SMITH, CARDINALS $1,940,000	SS	BARRY LARKIN, REDS $4,300,000
TOM HERR, CARDINALS $925,000	2B	ROBERTO ALOMAR, BLUE JAYS $4,250,000
EDDIE MURRAY, ORIOLES $2,460,000	1B	CECIL FIELDER, TIGERS $4,500,000
GARY CARTER, METS $1,925,571	C	BENITO SANTIAGO, PADRES $3,300,000
ANDRE THORNTON, INDIANS $1,100,000	DH	GEORGE BRETT, ROYALS $4,700,000
FERNANDO VALENZUELA, DODGERS $1,850,000	LHP	FRANK VIOLA, RED SOX $4,733,333
JACK MORRIS, TIGERS $1,850,000	RHP	DWIGHT GOODEN, METS $5,166,666
WILLIE HERNANDEZ, TIGERS $1,060,000	RP	JOHN FRANCO, METS $4,000,000