I betcha that everybody that likes baseball will keep watching it after the strike, and everybody that hates it won't. The strike doesn't matter at all.
Now about your payment question - if a team has some good players, they have more fans, more games on TV, more sponsors. Each of these advantages gives the teams a few bucks.
The soldiers, however, don't make the country get more money, so how is the country supposed to give them $1,000,000/year (atleast)?
I agree it sounds unfair, because every idiot can play baseball but it's much more difficult to serve the country, but it's simple: "make" more money to the employer -> get more money from the employer.
