ben hendrickson pleads guilty to two counts of theft by swindle

[trwi7]

What is sort of sad is he was living pay check to pay check so he embezzled (that's the correct term) money from his employer, yet as a 10th round pick he likely got at least a 100k+ bonus when he signed, so he apparently frittered that away as well as about a half-season worth of big league pay in 2004 ($300,000/year), and another month worth of major league pay in 2006 ($327,000/year). So besides being a thief, he also must be kind of stupid.

 

I'd argue that isn't really that much money. After taxes and paying your agent, it's not like that was life changing money. Especially if you have a mindset you'll keep making that much. If he was super frugal, he could have tucked away a bit, but not the type of money you'd be able to live off of for the long term. Either way, he shouldn't have resorted to swindling!

 

I also wouldn't say it's a certainty that he got at least $100K back in 1999 as a 10th round pick. Even going back to 2006 which is the earliest I can find for 9th and 10th round picks a lot of high school and junior college guys were signing for $60,000-$100,000. There were a few that were going for around $150,000 but this was still 7 years after Hendrickson's draft and most of the guys were making around $100,000 for their signing bonuses.

[igor67]

As much as I have no particular sympathy, once you factor in the years of terrible minor league wages, and the tax disadvantage of getting a couple of big paychecks instead of multiple years of mid range pay checks it is not super surprising.

[Thurston Fluff]

He didn't have enough from baseball to live on forever but how many tenth round picks assume they are going to make enough on baseball to live on forever? That was enough of a financial boost most people would love to have had in their first decade of adulthood.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

He didn't have enough from baseball to live on forever but how many tenth round picks assume they are going to make enough on baseball to live on forever? That was enough of a financial boost most people would love to have had in their first decade of adulthood.

 

Yeah, that's a ton of money. What it isn't, is money that will let you sit around for 50 years. With bonuses and MLB salary, whatever the amount he got a nice windfall at a very young age. If he'd been at all reasonable with it, at least a nice starting block + a head start on a portfolio. It isn't really surprising though given most people get that wisdom from parents and dad didn't seem like the brightest star in the sky.

[homer]

It's pretty easy to cast aspersions without knowing the whole story. For all we know, Ben used his bonus as a down payment on a house in 2007 and then the market tanked in 2008. I'm not defending embezzlement by any means but the fact that he received some kind of lump sum in 1999 is not necessarily a reason to castigate the guy for living paycheck to paycheck in 2018. Yeah he could be a doofus but there could be a slew of other reasons he's broke.

[djoctagone]

ben hendrickson lives in excelsior, which is an affluent outlying suburb of minneapolis. according to zillow, the median price of a home in excelsior is $566,500. we don't know if he owns or rents, but he's definitely residing in a high-income zip code.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

He didn't have enough from baseball to live on forever but how many tenth round picks assume they are going to make enough on baseball to live on forever? That was enough of a financial boost most people would love to have had in their first decade of adulthood.

 

Every one of them. They have been told how great they were since 7 years old. I'm sure almost all of them view themselves as future Hall of Famers.

[JimH5]

It's a sad story. Nobody thinks they'll have to resort to cheating others out of their money. But he did it, and now will have to pay the price.

 

The minors are littered with guys who are good enough to play there and not good enough for MLB. And Hendrickson just wasn't good enough for MLB.

[Jenkins5]

I remember those days well. No clue what name was then. That was even before BrewCrewWS2008 (which I changed to when site changed platforms & I couldn’t get into old one or forgot info.) I always found it funny. Ben was getting pounded every outing and definition of AAAA pitch but dad wasn’t having any bad comments. He was more pleasant when Ben was a stud dominating in minors.

 

Some articles are titled pretty good “Bad MLB Pitcher-Turned-Bad Accountant Fesses Up to Stealing $145,000 From Employer”

 

Hard to believe he is 38 already, been on this site a long time. Think I came when he was at High Desert with guys like Krynzel, Hart, Hardy, Zoccolillo, Kade Johnson, Brad Nelson and JM Gold.... at least Hart & Hardy hit in that group. Zocc, Krynzel, and Nelson all earned looks. Power catcher Johnson think flamed our in AA & Gold.... well nothing Gold can stay as Ponyboy would say.

[brwrsfan]

I remember those days well. No clue what name was then. That was even before BrewCrewWS2008 (which I changed to when site changed platforms & I couldn’t get into old one or forgot info.) I always found it funny. Ben was getting pounded every outing and definition of AAAA pitch but dad wasn’t having any bad comments. He was more pleasant when Ben was a stud dominating in minors.

 

Some articles are titled pretty good “Bad MLB Pitcher-Turned-Bad Accountant Fesses Up to Stealing $145,000 From Employer”

 

Hard to believe he is 38 already, been on this site a long time. Think I came when he was at High Desert with guys like Krynzel, Hart, Hardy, Zoccolillo, Kade Johnson, Brad Nelson and JM Gold.... at least Hart & Hardy hit in that group. Zocc, Krynzel, and Nelson all earned looks. Power catcher Johnson think flamed our in AA & Gold.... well nothing Gold can stay as Ponyboy would say.

 

I'm with you on this one...I joined back in late high school (it was brewerfan.com back then) and then in college, I worked an early morning shift in the computer lab and spent a majority of my time reading on drafts and minor league box scores for the likes of Prince, TGJ, etc. I suddenly feel old....

[Thurston Fluff]

He didn't have enough from baseball to live on forever but how many tenth round picks assume they are going to make enough on baseball to live on forever? That was enough of a financial boost most people would love to have had in their first decade of adulthood.

 

Every one of them. They have been told how great they were since 7 years old. I'm sure almost all of them view themselves as future Hall of Famers.

 

 

Humility probably doesn't set in right away with the high picks but lower round picks know they aren't the best ever or they would have been drafted higher. Teams also have people telling them not to be stupid with their money. It isn't the same as musicians or actors who are basically on thier own from the beginning. Teams have support structures built in to help with all sorts of off field things. But Homer is right I shouldn't judge. Other than to say he messed up.

[stalton]

As Mike Leake proved; you don't necessarily have to steal because of a lack of funds. Leake got busted for stealing shirts under 80 dollars.