Today in History: A Record Contract

On this date, February 8, 1991, pitcher Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox signs the most lucrative contract in baseball history to that time: $5,380,250 a year for four years.  That’s more than $600,000 a year more than the previous record, held by Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics.  Clemens’s record will last only a year, however, before the Chicago Cubs give $7 million a year to second baseman Ryne Sandberg.  (Image: Clemens in 2004 as a member of the Houston Astros, by Rick Dikerman, GNU License, from Wikipedia)

[Frank Snyder]