The New York Yankees agreed to give Alex Rodriguez the biggest contract in sports history.

The supers star third baseman agreed with the Yankees on a 10-year, $275 million contract, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. His previous contract, signed after the 2000 season with the Rangers ball club was also for 10 years, but for $252 million. That’s the same contract A-Rod opted out of during Game 4 of last month's World Series.

The contract is not yet official. The details of the dontract must be finalized, but these are just minor details and the biggest difficulty in keeping Rodriguez in pinstripes was left behind. He will play for the Yankees through the age of 42 and will be a key factor in drawning the fans to the ew Yankee Stadium which will open in 2009.

In the contract there will be incentives connected to A-Rod's expected chase of Barry Bonds' all-time home run record. A-Rod has passed the 500th home run milestone on Aug. 4 at the age of 32 to become the youngest player to reach that feat. This season he hit 54 homer runs and now has 518 for his career. But he struggled in the playoffs and the Yankees were eliminated in the first round for the third straight year.

"It looks good," said Hank Steinbrenner about the deal between the Yankees and Rodrigues. The deal will probably be made official before Monday, when A-Rod will most likely be designated as this year's AL MVP winner.

Meanwhile, the negotiations with Mariano Rivera have reached a halt. The Yankees have made a three-year, $45 million offer to Rivera and that would be the final offert sais Hank Steinbrenner. Rivera said he wanted four years.