Getting disciplinary fines from sports leagues seems like a bummer, but it’s part of the deal if you’re a highly paid athlete or coach. Hell, if I was a professional athlete, I’d go on a variety of outbursts of different sizes, just to test the league’s fining rationale. I like charity, guys.
Ron Washington once paid a $200 fine in pennies
Ron Washington gives zero craps, but about 20,000 pennies.
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
In 2011, Ron Washington failed to leave the dugout after getting ejected from a spring training game -- apparently, he didn’t have anyplace else to go in the tiny facility, so he just chilled out. This merited a $200 fine - a drop in the bucket, considering he made $1.5 million that year.
However, he was displeased with the league’s decision and expressed his displeasure in a way only Wash could. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Washington responded by filling a box with $200 in pennies and mailing it to Bob Watson, MLB vice president in charge of discipline. Cost to mail it to New York: About $45.
Watson called after receiving the box.
Watson: “And you just had $200 in pennies hanging around? Washington: “Yes. Bob, I didn’t have my checkbook. I wasn’t trying to be funny. Now go to the bank and put that in the [change] machine and get your $200.”
No, but seriously: WHERE DID HE GET 20,000 PENNIES. You can’t go to a bank and ask for 20,000 pennies. I imagine he had to pay a penny purchaser to gather coins for him. I’m guessing, including shipping, Washington ended up spending twice his $200 fee just to give the middle finger to the MLB for fining him in the first place.
There’s no additional fine for being a jerk about your first fine, so Washington got off scott-free. As long as those tiny one-cent copper coins exist, we recommend managers pay up like this.
