MLB Customary Gifts to Players Giving Their Jersey Numbers
How would you feel if you opened the front door in the morning and saw a luxury sports car as a gift?
A Porsche gifted by Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers) to Ashley, the wife of his teammate Joe Kelly, who gave up his uniform number 17.
Something that seemed like something out of a movie actually happened. Recently, Shohei Ohtani (pictured), wearing the LA Dodgers uniform of the Major League Baseball (MLB), paid 700 million dollars (about 912.1 billion won) over 10 years, the highest ever in North American professional sports history, and his teammate Joe Kelly gave up his number 17 jersey to him. gave his wife a Porsche car as a gift. Kelly's wife, Ashley Kelly, revealed her surprise gift from Otani on her own social media on Christmas Eve, the 24th. In the video, Ashley is surprised to see a silver sports sedan parked in front of her house. At this time, a man said, “This car is for you.” “It’s a gift from Otani,” he says.
Kelly, who has worn number 17 since 2019, readily announced her intention to give up her number since rumors of Ohtani's transfer to the Dodgers emerged. Ashley campaigned to recruit Ohtani through her social media and even changed her husband's jersey number to 99. After Ohtani signed with the Dodgers, Kelly also said, “If Ohtani performs like he is now, he will definitely enter the ‘Hall of Fame.’ “That’s the closest I can get to the Hall of Fame,” she said, expressing her welcome. 카지노사이트랭크
In MLB, it is customary for a player who has been given his uniform number to give it as a gift to the original owner. Choo Shin-soo, who joined SSG of the Korean Professional Baseball League in 2021 after playing in MLB for 16 years, also presented a luxury watch worth 20 million won to Lee Tae-yang (currently Hanwha), who gave up his uniform number 17.
There are also cases where cash was given instead of gifts. Former stolen base king Ricky Henderson (65) handed over $25,000 (about 32.58 million won) in cash to acquire the number 24 worn by Turner Ward when he moved to Toronto in 1993. Although it is still not a small amount of money, it was a significant amount at the time. John Lackey, who was traded to St. Louis during the 2014 season, presented an autographed ball of Babe Ruth (1895-1948) to Pat Nesick, who readily gave up his uniform number 41.
AJ Burnett, who joined Pittsburgh in 2012, promised to pay Daniel McCutchen's daughter's college tuition and took over jersey number 34. McCutchen, who was receiving MLB's lowest salary at the time, first asked for college tuition for his wife's unborn daughter, and Burnett accepted.
There were also cases where he refused to give up his uniform number. When Frank Viola, the Cy Young Award winner who moved to the New York Mets in 1989, asked to give up number 16, Dwight Gooden refused, saying, “I can give you anything, but not my uniform number.” 고스톱