Average wage for baseball player up 10-fold in 34 years

By Bae Eun-joo

The average annual wage for professional baseball players in Korea this year is almost 10 times what it was in 1982.

Korea Baseball Organization figures show players earn 9.3 times more and are 6.2 centimeters taller and 11.6 kilograms heavier compared with 1982. The average height this year is 182.7 centimeters, with a weight of 85.5 kilograms.

The average income was 12.15 million won in 1982. Today it is 112.47 million won. Last year, the average was 107.04 million won, surpassing 100 million won for the first time since the Korean professional baseball league was launched in 1982.

The average age for a professional baseball player has risen 1.5 years compared with 34 years ago. This year it is 27.5, up from 27.2 last year and 27 in 2013. The average age in 1982 was 26.

The number of first-tier professional baseball clubs is now 10 ― Samsung, Nexen, NC, LG, SK, Doosan, Lotte, KIA, Hanwha and KT ― whereas only six clubs existed in 1982 ― OB, MBC, Haitai, Samsung, Sammi and Lotte.

This has brought a huge increase in the number of games. A total of 240 were played in 1982 while 480 will be played this year. A professional baseball club played 80 games a year in 1982, but will play 144 this year.