John Hickey of the Mercury-News reports that Josh Reddick gave up his number 16 to Billy Butler when Country Breakfast signed with the A’s. The price? Not high: “For Reddick, giving up 16 wasn’t a major hardship, particularly since he got a new X-Box from Butler out of it as a token of appreciation.”
John Lackey gave Pat Neshek an autographed Babe Ruth ball when he was traded to the Cardinals last year. A.J. Burnett started a college fund for Daniel McCutchen’s kid in exchange for a number. Julio Borbon once gave Adrian Beltre his number for an expensive watch. Jim Thome gave Alexi Casilla a Rolex. My favorite of all time — which I mention whenever this comes up — was former Giants punter Jeff Feagles who got Plaxico Burress to pay for an outdoor kitchen at his vacation home in Phoenix in exchange for number 17 and — before that — got Eli Manning to send the Feagles’ family on a vacation to Florida in order to give up number 10.
So, in the grand scheme: an X-Box seems a bit . . . light.
I feel like the price was low, though, thanks to some psychology on Butler’s part. Read in the article how he talked about how it was such a duty -- he even calls it an “unwritten rule” -- for a player to give up his number to a guy with more service time. Which may very well be true, but the way in which Butler talks up that proposition for the article -- like it’s a law -- makes me wonder if Butler put that pitch to Reddick too. You know, to lean on him some.
And maybe he sold Reddick some undercoating too. Great deal on that undercoating.
