The name Andre Ethier still evokes a wide grin among most Dodgers fans. For 12 seasons, the player they dubbed "Captain Clutch" wore Dodger blue, amassing huge hits and big moments. While he played for the Dodgers throughout his entire MLB career, the team wasn't actually the first professional organization he ever played for.
In 2003, the Oakland Athletics drafted the young outfielder in the second round of the first-year player draft. Recently, he did an interview on the Dodgers' YouTube channel and revealed that he agreed to a modest $580,000 signing bonus and what he bought first with that money.
The first thing I bought — this dates me here — first thing I bought was a 80 inch projection box big screen TV. I don’t know if people remember these, I know guys my age, our parents remember this, but anyone younger than me, you probably don’t remember these big screen old school TVs that had projection boxes. They were really thick, but they were big screen and they projected from underneath and you could get them in massive sizes. You see these 80 inch flat screens, well imagine a flat screen being two feet thick and just as high and had to sit on the floor, that’s what these TVs were and that was the first thing I bought in 2003.
Yes, Andre purchased a state-of-the-art (for 2003) rear projection television. Which is on par for the time. But, those TVs were not cheap so how much did he end up spending?
I can’t even remember. It was probably $3,000 — I mean, it was expensive back then for a TV, but it was, like, the biggest picture you could get without having a projector.
Many of us would have done the same.
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