Yankee pitcher Randy Johnson balks at a car & college expenses for his "love child"

Great Debates
1

I was prepared to think he was being a greedy SOB but in reading the story I kinda think the Mom is over-reaching a bit.

The short version - Randy Johnson has a relationship 16 years ago & the woman gets pregnant - She breaks off relationship half way through pregnancy and they agree on a $ 5,000 per month CS + 750 per month for “child care/day care”. He has paid that amount continuously. He has seen the child one time.

This amounts to 69,000 per year in total CS and he never stopped paying the 750. Mom now wants him to pay for community college and a new car for the girl.

I really have to ask why the $ 69,000 a year isn’t sufficient to fund a car and community college classes, and that you feel you have to come back to the well 16 years after the fact for college and car money.

Is he being penny pinchingly greedy or is the mom of the “love child” pushing the envelope of expectations?

Yankees’ Johnson admits to ‘love child’

2

I think he’s done tons. Criminy, $5K for child support? When my kid was little, I didn’t have that much to run my whole household! And we planned for our daughter’s college all that time.

Nope, this sounds like greed, plain and simple.

3

Hmmm, I was never quite sure if they were calling him “The Big Unit” or “The Big Eunuch.” Now I know.
Seriously, the mom sounds pretty greedy to me. The $750 a month is not supposed to be spousal support, so it should be plenty of money for the girl to get a car and go to school on. Bet some of that money went for more than the girl’s room, board, medical, clothing, etc.

What has the mom contributed toward the girl’s support? Isn’t it half her kid too?

4

In reading the Smoking Gun version of this squabble (and in re-reading the AP version) it’s clear the $ 5000 per month + 750 has been since 1997 not since the birth of the child.

This makes him less generous but $ 69,000 per year for the last 9 years (not 16) ought to be enough for a car and community college.

5

He’s a multimillionaire and that girl is his flesh and blood.

Sure the big child support checks should have been plenty, but I doubt Johnson would balk were his own four kids to need extra college money.

I’d certainly give it to the girl, but would make darn sure it went directly to her tuition.

The fact that he’s seen her only once in her life is a damn shame and speaks volumes. It’s also likely that his going public (again) was his way of reducing future extortion demands.

Ugly stuff all around. The girl, of course, is likely the real victim, but we don’t have the details.

6

“Other” not “own”
but otherwise, yes. I agree with you. When it’s time for them to go to college, that will be paid for out of his salary, why shouldn’t this child’s college tuition be paid for the same way?

7

Waitaminute… she broke off the relationship and she’s looking for another pile of cash?

Now she’s had almost half a million dollars in payments to take care of this kid, and … okay, I’m prepared to believe Randy Johnson is a jerk, but good God, that woman needs to get a financial grip on things.

What happened to the cash she already got? Holy shit — half a million dollars would have at least bought a car for her. Damn greedy mother.

I won’t condemn him for not seeing the girl until I know whether that was part of their arrangement or not.

8

:smiley: “Randy.” “Johnson.” Heeheeheeheehee.

9

My take on it: pay for the education, not for the car. $69K/yr for the last 9 yrs (and the next two) should mean there should have been enough to spare for a car.

I wonder if we could account how much is actual value of yearly expenditure on each of his other 4 children’s education, personal expenses, transport, health, feeding, etc. It may well be not be that huge a difference, millionaire or not (unless he indulges their every whim).

10

Yep. I agree. Knew I was wrong while typing, but didn’ go back to revise.

11

I wouldn’t pony up another dime. ~$600,000 is easily enough for a really nice house, car, and 4 years at a decent college. She’s an adult now, if her mom pissed away her child support then she needs to take it up with her, not with a man who has done more than enough.

12

I think that any woman who is receiving $70K a year (that’s more than the salary hub makes for four of us) for one child and complaining is a fool. So, you dated a guy, got pregnant and now he has to support you in a very comfortable manner for 20 years? I highly doubt that all that money went only to her child. Gosh, this should be a racket. Essentially, he has paid her all these years to be a stay-at-home mom? What a tough life. I agree that they easily should have been able to afford college/car with that kind of scratch.

Extortion, and I hope it stops. While I completely agree that there should be no “deadbeat dads”, this is excessive and opportunistic. Shame on that woman.

13

The child is entitled to live in a lifestyle that reflects her parents’ earnings. The fact that she could live on $1200/month doesn’t mean it would be fair for her to live beneath her dad’s level of comfort. Ditto on education. It sounds like his earning power would allow for her attending a good school. She shouldn’t have to go to community college.

The car? Hmmmm…my parents never bought me a fancy car. They purchased one for my brother and I to share. It was a used car for $100. I don’t think he’s obligated to buy her anything at all, and certainly not an expensive one. Just my opinion.

14

69K a year needs to be put in perspective. Sure for average Joe’s like myself, that is an enormous amount of money. But Randy “don’t talk back to me” Johnson is scheduled to make 15.4 million this year. If my math is correct that means he is paying out less than *one-half of one percent * of his yearly income to support his child, for chrissakes! He should be doing a hell of a lot more than that. As stated above, the parents earnings are taken into account when deciding on child support. If your earnings go up, so to should your support. And what kind of an ass would see his child once in his life? He’s a dick.

15

Also in reading the smoking gun report, it looks like there was a trust fund that was supposed to be contributed to by the plaintiff to the tune of $3,000 / year. (page 6)

16

What kind of logic is that? Sure this is just a tiny piece of his salary, but who cares? Is it really too much to ask that the agreement that they both signed be followed? Morally should he give her more money? Probably. But should he HAVE TO BECAUSE HE HAS MORE MONEY? Hell No! You can’t change the rules after you’ve both agreed on them.

17

Yeah, to keep it in perspective Randy Johnson’s total baseball earnings (just his salaries at the major league level…no bonuses, minor league salaries, endorsements, or other income) for his career (1989-2005 and ongoing) total:

$127,687,500

More than $100MM of that coming over the last nine years apparently in question. He’s a great pitcher and he’s done very well for himself.

So, while I think making demands on him is unseemly I’d want to know more about the situation before making any real value judgement. Notably why he’s only seen her once over the course of her life. I’d like to think I’d make an effort to do so if any by-blows were out there from my history. It’s possible he’s using money to make the problem ‘go away’, sure. But it’s also possible that the mother doesn’t want him around. Or it’s possible that his current wife places pressure on him to not have any contact other than that required by law with the mother and daughter. God knows these things happen (my own father’s second wife begrudges and contact he has with myself and my sister…including college costs way back when).

18

What the heck is wrong wiith all you people?

I am absolutely blown away with these posts, I really am. (and this from a guy who pays child support for 3 kids, and an exwife who is singularly the most difficult woman in the western hemisphere)

Randy Johnson wasn’t raped. He took the “Big Johnson” out and made a baby. His support payments are entirely relevent to his earnings. Are you all college kids, or dead beat dads or what? Randy needs to accept responsibility and make sure that the child he sired has a decent chance for making her way successfully as she enters adulthood.

It’s to her credit she wants to go to college. The cost of the community college (which in my city is an outstanding value and a great education) in my city is between 2 and 3 thousand a year. What’s the cost of a mid size Chevy, or a Saturn? 15K?

There is nothing noble about paying child support. It is what you are expected to so—it is your job. What is noble is going above and beyond what the state requires (which in practical terms will rarely get anyone rich) If Randy Johnson has been paying consistently these years, as the court ordered, there is nothing special about that. Nothing. He did what would have been required of him.

Is there any indication that Randy Johnson has done anything except the bare minimum? Has he done anything at all to ensure the future of a child he brought into the world?

There is certainly a moral argument that Randy should take, what amounts to pocket change to him, and invest in this girl’s future. And there is certainly a legal argument that he should pay. Whether he signed some agreement or not, the girls needs are the girls needs. Only a complete and utter jerk would deny something as valuable and fundamental to this girls future as a meager community college education.

The fact of the matter is that somehow Randy Johnson got away with murder. In most jurisdictions his child support payments would have been tied directly to the relative incomes of him and the girls mother. How he got away with $70K/yr amazes me. Seventy grand didn’t make any one rich in that household.

I applaud this girl for wanting to go to college, and I applaud the girl’s mother for doing all the heavy lifting the last 16 years. She has been more than reasonable. She should have revisited his support payments years ago, and she should be sending that girl to Yale now.

Jacob Silj is right. He’s a dick.

19

Johnson is a dick.

I agree.

Seriously!

The mom could be a wasteful bitch, but children who have two parents, one with millions, is entitled to the financial leverage they have. The fact that others have less is IRRELEVANT. Her dad should pony up the dough. He could have been out six million to her versus 600k. And me saying, ‘out six million’ is bad wording, too. You can’t be ‘out’ any am’t of money to your children unless they used it to hire a killer or do drugs.

Pay up for the daughter. Yes, the wife MIGHT be a bitch, but that is irrelevant, too.

20

Given all other choices, this is where I would place my largest bet. Beyond whatever level of compartmentalizaton he has indulged in re his love child, if (as according to the article) he and his wife are born again Christians, and she (his wife) is invested in the image of a tidy Christian family and is protective of this reality, his out of wedlock 16 year old and ex-girlfriend mom from days gone past is the last thing she would want in their lives.