The first real superstar was also created at the turn of the century. Mike "King" Kelly was baseball's first transcendent star getting paid five thousand dollars. This salary allowed Kelly to live a flashy lifestyle while many bleacher bums filled ballparks even though they were in disagreement with his oversized paycheck. Salaries of baseball players slowly but steadily continued to rise during this time. This being somewhat incredible and ridiculous as America was struggling horribly during this time. America was going through the first World War and a suffering economy. Yet, professional athletes were getting paid more then the President of the United States who had the most important job trying to guide America through hard times. In 1930, the Great Depression had just hit the United States. This was arguably the hardest time in American history. However, not everyone believed that life was that bad. Babe Ruth was paid a salary of eighty thousand dollars in 1930 just to hit home runs. Indeed, Babe Ruth was a great baseball player; however, he was a typical overpaid athlete with an attitude that foreshadowed many to come in the future. When Ruth was asked to justify himself making thousand dollars more than the President of the United States that year, he replied, "I had a better year than he did." Such examples of overpaid athletes in early America opened the doors for those in the future (Sullivan 144). .
Athletes" salaries continued to rise in other sports with baseball as their model. In 1970, Curt Flood challenged baseball's reserve clause. The reserve clause is what bounded each player to his team. Curt Flood argued that a player should be able to holdout and test free agency. Despite the case going all the way to the Supreme Court, Flood lost the case but pretty much spelled out free agency to everyone. Within a few years, the reserve clause was modified allowing free agency.