Professional athletes talk all the time about how a championship ring is the driving factor in their career, particularly in its later stages. When the players lucky enough to win those rings finally get them, they are something champions cherish for the rest of the life.
That is, until they need some money.
That's the case for former Red Sox reliever Scott Williamson who was a member of the famous 2004 team that broke the Sox' 86-year championship drought. According to the Boston Herald, however, Williamson is ready to put his small piece of Red Sox history up for sale.
Williamson has decided that he's going to auction off his ring from the 2004 season, but it's not for the same downtrodden reasons that has cost down-on-their-luck athletes their championship jewelry in the past.
The former reliever told the Herald that while he could use the money to help pay for his family's house in Indiana that was built before the economy collapsed, he's also going to use the money to finance an indoor baseball facility for kids.
"I can die with that World Series ring," Williamson told the Herald. "But if I die and I have this [facility] and these kids, and I've helped make them better people then my name and what I've done will mean more to me than that."
The ring will be auctioned online by Everything But the House though Oct. 25. Bidding will begin at just $1.
Williamson insists that his financial issues aren't the driving issues for the auction, as he told the Herald that he has more assets than debt, but Williamson and his wife put a lot of money into their house back when it was built in 2004.
"I knew there could be some negative press, but to me it's not negative press," Williamson said. "I don't care what anyone says. My goals and my stuff are straight positive. It's not for me. It's for these kids and this community."
Lenny Dykstra raffled off his 1986 World Series ring in 2009 amid his personal bankruptcy, and he got $56,000 at auction for the ring.
See the ring below from the Everything But the House website.
