As the date for the first bout of pitchers and catchers report to baseball's spring training is only 10 days away comes word that George Steinbrenner just keeps pushing the salary limit.

The owner of the New York Yankees has apparently given his blessing to a payroll that seems poised to start the year at $164 million, easily a record for baseball. It tops his team's payroll of last season by $24 million.

It's also $45 million more than his cross-city rival New York Mets, expected to open the year with the second-highest payroll of $119 million.

It's also a whopping 60 percent higher than division rival Boston, which, despite that disparity, is still spending more than $100 million this season.

The Minnesota Twins, considered on the other end of the spectrum from the Yankees as a "small market team," have made local headlines because owner Carl Pohlad has OK'd a payroll of above $50 million, pleasing team fans.

The Yankees were routinely singled out by smaller market owners as the poster child franchise for bloated spending and high player salaries ruining the game during the last round of contract talks with the players.

The agreement included a new luxury tax and other measures designed to get Steinbrenner to rein in spending, but it hasn't worked as the New York Daily News reported the $164 million figure over the weekend.

That figure also doesn't include contracts that defer salary until years into the future. It does include a litany of high-priced bench players that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman couldn't unload because of the guaranteed contracts.