During the 1920’s, the average American was making about $2000. This does not seem like much but it could actually substantially if not extravagantly support a family of four. Because Americans had all this cash to spend many chose to take it to ginormous sports complexes to watch their local teams. New, huge stadiums were being built all over the country. Many universities such as: Stanford, Washington, Alabama, California, and several others …show more content…
The average baseball player in the 20’s made around ten to twenty-thousand, while a star like Babe Ruth made over eighty. While we do still see this trend today, it has become less of an issue. In today's NFL, a starting quarterback could make upwards of 25 million a year, while his backup makes about 5. This isn't an issue due to the fact that these men are all millionaires. Sports continued to grow in popularity also due to some technological advances as well. The use of the radio and television led to the widespread growth of sports popularity. Now a farm boy in Iowa, could listen to the Chicago Cubs take on the New York Giants and a kid from the Bronx could watch the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox while he sat right outside the stadium. The spread of sports never really stopped, even today the sports world seems to be expanding.
We see several references to sports in The Great Gatsby. There are many parts of the book were they spoke of amateur and professional sports. Tom Buchanan is mentioned many times as a polo player and a star college athlete. Jordan Baker is a professional women's golfer who is recognized as a celebrity and is mentioned to compete in tournaments throughout the book. Meyer Wolfshiem is mentioned as the person who fixed the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati