Fingers 1981 Cy Young, MVP awards to be up for auction

[gypcasino]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/201335321.html

[dlk9s]

I hope it's for charity and not because he needs the money.

[xisxisxis]

I hope it's for charity and not because he needs the money.

 

You'd think WHY? would have occurred to Don Walker, but I guess he uses the same service as Haudricourt to mail in their work....

[Invader3K]

Well, he did have those problems with the IRS a few years back, but supposedly got that taken care of.

[JimH5]

If they were for charity, I think we would have heard about it. I suspect it's just him clearing out stuff that's valuable and using the money himself. Nothing wrong with that.

[jjkoestler]

Any guesses on the final prices of the Cy Young and MVP?

[splitterpfj]

Rollie's tax issue was more noise than substance. When I talked to him about it, he said his taxes had been paid on time, but some of his returns were filed late, so he had to pay a settlement to the State of Wisconsin to cover that.

 

Years ago, shortly after his retirement from baseball, Rollie filed bankruptcy. I don't know if he's having financial issues, or if he just decided he'd rather have cash than trophies, he's got adult children, but some younger ones too.

[JohnBriggs12]

He could save those big fees charged by the auction house and just go to Vegas and drop in on the Pawn Stars. They'll pay cash and have an interesting episode.

[DocLuna7]

I wish that the Brewers as an organization would look into buying stuff like this and putting it on display for the fans.

[Dean Machine]

If he needs money it's not a big deal. He never made the money the players do now and I've seen his name at enough card shows to realize that's basically his job so he's subsidizing it. It's not like he can go get a regular job because we would all gawk at him. I've talked to him briefly and he seemed like a good guy and regardless of whether he has the trophies he is still the Cy Young award winner.

[JohnBriggs12]

If he needs money it's not a big deal. He never made the money the players do now and I've seen his name at enough card shows to realize that's basically his job so he's subsidizing it. It's not like he can go get a regular job because we would all gawk at him. I've talked to him briefly and he seemed like a good guy and regardless of whether he has the trophies he is still the Cy Young award winner.

 

Fingers made a shade under $3 million in his career. Of course in today's dollars that's about $15 million or roughly what a guy of his stature today makes in one year. That's plenty if invested wisely, but it's a far cry from today's salaries. He's also had some endorsement deals over the years including one fairly recently. He was in that Pepsi commercial about a year ago that featured hall of famers in the corn fields.

[Bikeage77]

I wish that the Brewers as an organization would look into buying stuff like this and putting it on display for the fans.

 

 

That's a great point. I could make a stab at contacting someone in the Brewers office via email tomorrow, unless someone else is interested.

[mothershipconnection]

He could save those big fees charged by the auction house and just go to Vegas and drop in on the Pawn Stars. They'll pay cash and have an interesting episode.

 

They'd also have a buddy who's an expert on 1981 Cy Young and MVP awards. They'd call him up and ask him to swing by to see how many crisp hundred dollar bills, cash money, they should pay. Probably not too many 'cause they've gotta make money off of it, and you've gotta find a certain type of collector for this, who's just hard to find nowadays with the economy the way it is. Also, they'd edit it so it looks like Rick knew from memory that Fingers had 341 saves and pitched 1701 1/3 career innings.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

I've talked to a few formwer players that have put awards up for sale. Sometimes there are more kids than awards, and there are family fights or resentment. I was told it is much easier to split up the money than the posessions.

[splitterpfj]

Any of you would love Rollie, he's a fun, friendly guy who is more than willing to talk baseball.

 

He's got kids of widely varying ages, from multiple relationships, as SuperCollector said, maybe he's just decided it's easier to split money in an estate, than to decide which kid gets the best trophies.

 

Vada Pinson's daughter sold a bunch of her dad's awards after he passed, and Vada III is still upset over it, maybe Rollie just wants to avoid that kind of conflict.