The Sunday Funnies

We opened this regular offseason Sunday feature with Rickey Henderson; we'll close it with Rickey too. Specifically, Rickey and money.

Henderson's on his first go-round with the A's, and he earns a nice $1 million bonus, which the A's send him in January. The months pass, and at the end of the year the A's are doing their year-end audit, and find a $1 million descrepancy.

$1 million. Rickey. You don't suppose ...

A front office functionary gives Henderson a call. Did you get that $1 million bonus check back in January? Yep, Rickey did. Well, did you cash it?


Nope, Rickey didn't. He framed it. It was hanging on his wall, so that everyday he'd see it and know he's a millionaire.

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The years pass. Rickey's now with the Yankees, and he gets another bonus check, something in six figures, and with the fullness of time it becomes the Yankees turn to find in their year-end audit that there is a descrepancy matching Henderson's bonus check.

A front office functionary (supposedly Brian Cashman, now the Yankees general manager) gives Henderson a call. Did you get that bonus check back in January? Yep, Rickey did. Well, did you cash it?


Nope. Rickey's waiting for the money market rates to go up.

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More years pass. Rickey is on another go-around with Oakland. Teammate Jason Giambi reaches a multi-year deal with the A's, and he and some of the other players are talking in the clubhouse about what kind of car Giambi's going to buy.

Henderson gets up from his corner of the clubhouse and hands Giambi a copy of the Wall Street Journal. The others start razzing him about investing.

"You can say what you want to," Henderson retorts, "but Rickey ain't never going broke."