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Life is good when you're an American athlete. For the second year in a row, Sports Illustrated set about to rank the top earners in sports in terms of salary, winnings, endorsements and appearances. What did we find? The rich got even richer.

The average earnings of the athletes of the Fortunate 50 is $22.6 million, a 38 percent increase over last year's average of $16.4 million. That may sound like a drop in the bucket in an age when baseball players sign $250 million contracts and football teams are valued in excess of $1 billion. But think of it in this context: During that same period, the average American's salary increased only 2.6 percent, according to Salary.com -- to $39,795. Kinda makes you wonder if those tax cuts really are only benefiting that top 1 percent, doesn't it?

Then again, the average American doesn't stare down a Randy Johnson fastball, D up on Allen Iverson or have millions in sponsorships riding on a putt on the 12th at Augusta. If you want to crack the ranks of the Fortunate 50, there are three easy ways to do it:

1) Play in the NBA (more on this later).

2) Get on George Steinbrenner's payroll (six Yankees made the list; a seventh is one of the 20 highest-paid internationals).

3) Be Tiger Woods.

Once again, Tiger is the clear-cut No. 1, with total earnings of $86.4 million. His enormous endorsement income is untouchable among American athletes, and actually grew by $10 million after one of Woods' least-productive years on the golf course. That's because Tiger inked new deals with Yahoo, Buick and SBC Communications, and made dozens of six-figure corporate appearances and speaking engagements.

Woods isn't the only one with increased endorsement and appearance dollars -- many of the familiar faces in the Fortunate 50 (37 of whom appeared last year) upped their corporate income. NASCAR god Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 10) is up to $20 million per year as a pitchman; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning (No. 7) is tops in the NFL with $10.5 million; Lance Armstrong (No. 28) rakes in $17.5 million; and Andre Agassi (No. 2) this year pulls in a whopping $44.5 million in endorsement dollars, thanks to a $20 million balloon payment from Nike as his previous deal expired in January.

Companies are concentrating their efforts more on athletes with established reputations and histories of solid performance instead of throwing cash at the most buzz-worthy flavor of the week, says Doug Shabelman, senior vice president of Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing, a firm that matches celebrities and athletes with endorsement deals.

"There are no Anna Kournikovas on this list, no one who can't back up their endorsement deals with their game," Shabelman says. At her peak, tennis' erstwhile glamour girl was pulling in $15 million a year in endorsements despite never winning a professional tournament. Those days are gone, says Shabelman. "You're also seeing some of these names taking fewer deals and instead going for a smaller portfolio that is nicer in [monetary] stature."

By contrast, most of the 13 new athletes on this year's list make their debut because of back-loaded contracts (such as No. 49, Dallas Mavericks forward Keith Van Horn) or enormous bonuses (as in the case of No. 32, pitcher Tim Hudson, whom the Atlanta Braves locked up with a $10 million signing bonus).