Doesn't Everybody Need an Ocular Enhancer Machine

Good work if you can get it:

NEW YORK -- The Mets signed Carlos Beltran to play center field for the next seven years. They'll be paying him for the next 14.

New York will not make the final payment on Beltran's $119 million contract until July 1, 2018, according to details of the agreement that were obtained by The Associated Press.

Beltran's deal contains $22 million in deferred salary that will be paid out in the seven years after the contract expires. He will be 41 by the time he receives all the money, which will be paid each July 1 starting in 2012 in yearly installments of $3,142,857 plus interest that will accrue at the rate of 1.7175 percent annually.

Like Pedro Martinez, who signed with the Mets in December, Beltran will get an array of perks as part of the contract, including a hotel suite on all road trips and a 15-person luxury suite for all home games, although he must buy tickets for the suite for any postseason games. In the most unusual clause of the deal, the Mets agreed to lease for Beltran an ocular enhancer machine, a device that throws colored, numbered tennis balls to batters at 150 mph or faster.