Dodgers: Andre Ethier Reveals the First Thing He Bought After Signing an MLB Contract
The name Andre Ethier still brings a big smile to the faces of most Dodger fans. The man they called Captain Clutch donned Dodger blue for 12 seasons, racking up big hits and big moments. While he spent the entirety of his MLB career in LA, the Dodgers weren’t actually the first pro team he played for.
Back in 2003, Ethier was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the first year player draft. He agreed to a modest $580,000 signing bonus and, in a recent chat on the Dodgers’ YouTube channel, he revealed what he spent part of that bonus on.
Biiiiig Screen TV
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 picked himself up a state-of-the-art (for 2003) rear projection TV. As for the next most important point, how much did it cost?
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.
Big baller Dre.
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Had a friend that had one of those. Crazy. Kind of forgot about those monstrosities. Man. Milton Bradley for Andre Ethier. One kind of forgets that, too. An underperformer who was not good for the dugout traded for Andre. A true Dodger. Gave 100%. Really enjoyed having him on the team.
Ethier was a fantastic Dodger. Clutch, always gave all and understood the game. Smart player…. I can see him becoming the Dodgers next manager!!! Please make it happen Dre!!!!!!!
If he should return as manager, who gets to wear # 16 uni, AE or WS ?
I miss Ethier.
I would have bought a house. With a swimming pool. Then a TV.
A little before that time I worked for an electronics store delivering monsters like that. Hated those as well as the CRT TVs –too damn heavy.
With that projection TV, do you think he would have been able to project what kind of career he was going to have?
Not what I would have done, but a $3K TV out of a 560K signing bonus isn’t extravagant at all. Really, it’s pretty modest. And he might have bought a house and a car, but he just said the big TV was the first thing he bought. And I can see a lot of people doing the same thing.