A BASEBALL icon once blew his fortune on bad investments – all before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Widely considered as one of the best pitchers in MLB history, Roland ‘Rollie’ Fingers earned a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992 having played for the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers.
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But in the latter stages of his career, he struggled to even buy a house.
A series of bad investments – including Hawaiian timeshares, wind turbines, and Arabian horses – forced him into bankruptcy.
He was $4.2million in debt at the time, with his listed assets worth more than $5m in court records.
Fingers, now 78, opened up about his money troubles back in 1991 during an interview with Bob Nightengale.
He said: “Once you file for bankruptcy, your credit is shot.
“No one’s going to loan me money for a house. No one’s going to give me a loan for a car. I can’t even get a credit card.
“You try not to think about it, but when you do, you look back and just think how stupid you were.”
The Baseball icon eventually had to get a job in corporate sales that saw him earn less than $50,000-a-year.
Fingers continued: “When you got four kids at home, and rent each month, that doesn’t go real far.
“But I’m not bitter about it. I made a mistake, and now I’m paying for it.
“The big mistake I made was trusting people. I never thought they’d screw me, but that’s what happened.”
The ex-pitcher has since become an alumni ambassador for the Oakland As and frequently shows up to games at Sutter Health Park.
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