Sport: Plutocrat from Pittsburgh

Slugger Dave Parker reigns as baseball's best-paid player

In the time before baseball's free-agent era, ,the loudest sounds of the off season came from the hot stove league, that long winter of "Remember when . . ." and "Who was it that . . . ?" Today such gentle ruminations have been all but drowned out by the ringing of cash registers, as players who have learned to measure the value of strong arms and big bats in the open market have begun renegotiating contracts.

This past winter more than half a dozen athletes joined...