Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

4/5/2010 at 12:00am

Pine Bluff native Torii Hunter established himself as one of the best players in major league baseball over the last decade. He broke into the big leagues in 1999 and has seen a dramatic increase in his profile and popularity ever since.

Oh, and the salary bump for Hunter has been pretty good, too. Hunter earned $17.8 million more in 2009 than when he debuted for the Minnesota Twins.

Hunter tops ArkansasSports360.com’s list of highest paid athletes with Arkansas ties (click here to view a PDF of the list.) It’s a familiar spot for Hunter, who was No. 1 on the list in 2005 and was second to Little Rock native and NBA star Joe Johnson in 2007, the last time Arkansas Business evaluated which homegrown athletes were drawing top dollar.

Athletics have been good to Arkansans.

Baseball and basketball are the sports with the top salaries, but the state has produced highly skilled — and highly paid — football players, golfers and even a NASCAR driver.

Each year, the state seems to generate a new star and big earner in the world of sports. Consider Conway native and golf veteran Bryce Molder, who won just $9,819 in 2008, but improved his game dramatically in 2009, earning $1.15 million to rank No. 14 on our list.

Salaries ranged from the $18 million earned by Hunter to the $391,000 paid to Peyton Hillis, who the Denver Broncos recently traded to the Cleveland Browns. On average our homegrown heroes earned about $3.83 million worth of salary in 2009 and combined for $95.87 million, not including any business ventures or endorsements that might be generating revenue.

Our list of the highest-paid athletes from Arkansas is based on salaries and earnings for the 2009 and 2008 seasons (2008-09 and 2007-08 for basketball). It has been compiled looking at salaries and earnings, but does not take into account endorsements/advertising money. To make the Top 25, athletes must have attended an Arkansas high school. However, we highlight other athletes with ties to the state’s universities and colleges in a separate list.

(Sources include USA Today, NASCAR, LPGA and PGA.)