      "You definitely look at the bottom-line [tax] figure and
you go, 'Jeesh, that's a lot of money,' said Colorado Rockies
outfielder Michael Cuddyer, who is in the last year of a three-
year, $31.5 million contract. "Then you look at the net income
and you go, 'Jeesh, that's a lot of money too.'''  State income
tax varies greatly depending where an athlete lives. In
addition, some states require athletes to pay tax on the income
earned during the days they worked in that state, a levy known
as a "jock tax." When it's all said and done, many athletes are
paying as much as half their income in taxes.  "Wages for
athletes can be huge but are earned over a relatively short
period of time," said Mitchell S. Halpern, director­ of sports
and entertainment accounting services at O'Connor & Drew in
Braintree, Mass. "The battle with an athlete is, if he's making
$10 million and taxes take half of that, he's taking home $5
million. Is that paid over a lifetime? No. And their rate of
spending can be, well, it's amazing