On Thursday night, New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia was two innings shy of pitching 155 innings on the season. Had he reached that mark, he’d have earned a cool half million dollars. Instead, he plunked Jesus Sucre and got ejected from the game.

Sabathia has made something like $250 million in his career, so you don’t exactly need to shed a tear for him. Still, half a million dollars is half a million dollars!

Update (August 18, 2025): Nearly seven years after this incident, I stumbled on to the fact that Sabathia eventually did receive this bonus. Per Sabathia’s agent, it was “a very nice gesture”, even if it sort of nullifies this whole post.