Nationals ask Zimmerman to wait a couple of days before cashing paycheck

WASHINGTON, DC — Washington Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden took star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman aside and asked him quietly yesterday if he wouldn’t mind waiting a couple of days before cashing the paycheck that he received Aug. 21.

“It was weird,” said Zimmerman. “Bowd comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, listen, are you going to the bank right away?’ I said I probably was going to try and go by this weekend, because I have a lot of change that I want to deposit, and he goes, ‘Do you think maybe you could hold off on cashing your check until next Tuesday or Wednesday?’

“That’s pretty strange, right?” Zimmerman continued. “I asked him if everything was okay, if the team was doing all right. He said it was fine, but I don’t really believe him.”

Bowden, when asked if the team was okay financially, said, “Yeah, no problems at all, we’re just having a little issue with payroll, want to make sure we don’t bounce any checks. Plus we had to give out bonuses to our draft picks, you know how that goes. But we had those big series against Philly and the Mets, so once that money’s all squared away we should be cool.”

Zimmerman apprarently reluctantly agreed to hold off on cashing his check, but his faith in the financial solvency of the Nationals is a bit shaken. “I worked at Taco Bell in high school,” Zimmerman said, “and they never had to hold off on my check. Of course, I got paid less there … but not by much.”

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!