Greedy Little Bastards in Baseball

It is well known that many professional athletes receive interesting clauses in their contracts, giving them anything from houses, plane tickets, and limo rides to real estate ownership and pets. Below is a list of some of the weirdest clauses that have been included in certain baseball players contracts, as the MLB is notorious for their in-depth, guaranteed contract incentives:

When Greg Maddux signed his final one-year deal with the Padres in 2008, he got the team to include an automatic membership to the San Diego Country Club so he could spend his retirement playing golf. Maddux was ranked by Golf Digest as the 61^st best athlete-golfer in 2007, placing behind former teammates John Smoltz (16^th) and Tom Glavine (52^nd). (Matt Ginella, GolfDigest.com)

In January of 2000, GM of the Mets Steve Phillips found an interesting way to free up some payroll to sign free agents. Instead of eating Bobby Bonilla's $5.9 million remaining on his contract, Bonilla agreed to differ the payments until 2011, with a menial 8% interest accrual. So now that the payments begin July 1^st of this year, Bonilla will collect a little more than $1.2 million per year from 2011-2035 from the Mets. That mean's Bonilla will be collecting money from a team that he played for almost forty years ago in 2035. (Adam Rubin, ESPNNewYork.com)

To entice second-year pitcher Charlie Kerfield to re-sign with the Astros after the 1986 season, the team gave the pitcher 37 boxes of orange Jello. It didn't work out so well, as he became too fat to pitch and was demoted to the minors after getting caught eating ribs in the dugout during a game in 1987. (Matt Trueblood, Bleacherreport.com)

Apparently A-Rod wanted to make sure his girlfriends sat in only the best seats when attending his games. As part of the 10 year, $275 million deal he signed in 2008, he included an interesting ticket clause in the contract. Rodriguez may purchase the 4 best available season tickets for the 2008 season, and 4 Legends suite or comparable season tickets for the 2009-2017 seasons. (Cot's Baseball Contracts)

Just to show A-Rod that he has many more friends and family, Mark Teixeira included a similar clause in his 2009 contract with the Yankees. However, Tex can purchase 8 season tickets per year, as opposed to A-Rod's mediocre 4. (Cot's Baseball Contracts)

To continue with the trend of ridiculous Yankee contract clauses, Curtis Granderson got a lofty clause when he signed an extension with the Tigers in 2008. (The Yankees inherit the deal). Granderson makes a base salary of $8.25 million in 2011 and $10 million in 2012. However, if he is an All Star in either year, his salary increases to $14 million each season, almost a 50% increase. To top that, if he finishes anywhere in the top 5 in AL MVP voting, his salary increases to $15 million, or almost double that of his base salary in 2011 and $5 million more in 2012. (Cot's Baseball Contracts)

Rollie Fingers' 1973 contract with the defending champion A's included a $300 bonus for growing a mustache, and an additional $100 to pay for mustache wax. Owner Charlie Finley had paid the players to grow mustaches for Father's Day in 1972, giving Fingers the idea to include the bonus in his next contract. (Ethan Trex, Mental Floss)

To thank Roy Oswalt for his spectacular pitching that brought the Astros to their first World Series in 2005, owner Drayton McLane wrote a new clause into Oswalt's contract for 2006 that allowed him to purchase Roy a Caterpillar D6N XL bulldozer, a toy that Oswalt had always pined for. The deal would become more famously known as the “bulldozer clause”. (Ethan Trex, CNN.com)

Although Michael Jordan was thought to be losing about $4 million each season he played for the White Sox when he quit basketball, he actually had a secret deal in place. Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf also owned the White Sox, and agreed to pay Jordan both his minor league baseball salary as well as his Bulls salary as long as he was on one of Reinsdorf's teams. (Associated Press, Sports Illustrated)