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Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
Sport
Paul Sullivan

Paul Sullivan: Mets owner Steve Cohen is on a wild spending spree — and it has baseball in a tizzy

Steve Cohen Jerry Reinsdorf Mets Albert Belle Baseball White Sox Carlos Correa Ryne Sandberg Sox Cubs

CHICAGO — It was 26 years ago that White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf shocked the baseball world by signing surly free-agent slugger Albert Belle to a record five-year, $55 million deal.

White Sox fans were ecstatic. The Sox players loved it. Belle would team with Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura to make for a potentially lethal lineup.

But other owners were apoplectic. The combined salaries of Belle and Thomas, in excess of $17 million, would be more than the entire payrolls of the Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos. And Reinsdorf had been a leader of the owners in a battle with the players union that led to the strike that canceled the end of the 1994 season.

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