Ray R. Irani, the chairman of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, was given $95 million by his board to buy out a strikingly lavish contract with one that put more pay at risk.

During Steinbrenner's exile, the Yankees signed the right-hander Jim (Catfish) Hunter to the first of the lavish free-agent contracts.

In the world of the principal owner George Steinbrenner, Yankees players have lavish contracts, proven track records and supreme confidence.

Perks and lavish contracts abounded.

But the lavish contract changed the perception of everything he did.

Further high-profile signings - Tore André Flo for a club record £12 million, and the Dutch internationalist Ronald de Boer on a lavish contract - could not reverse the decline.

Although nominally just music director, Mr. Chung was given a lavish new contract by Mr. Berge and has assumed many of the functions of artistic director.

In the light of this, some authors with less lavish contracts have been irritated by the Follett and Archer deals.

Brown rebuked the Yankees for sending "the worst possible message" to children by rewarding a player with a lavish contract five months after he tested positive for cocaine use and was then suspended from baseball.

Of all the lavish contracts George Steinbrenner has given players over the years, Hideki Irabu's is not the one he should be criticized for.