A Joke That Became Official
Before Game 6 of the 2005 National League Championship Series, the Houston Astros were backed into a corner. Down three games to two against the St. Louis Cardinals, their season hung on one more win. Owner Drayton McLane stood in the clubhouse and made a promise to his starting pitcher Roy Oswalt—one that started as a grin and a half-serious wager.
«Win this game,» McLane told Oswalt, «and I’ll get you a bulldozer.»
It was the kind of thing owners say when the stakes are high and nobody’s really thinking about equipment catalogs. Oswalt took the mound, threw 6.2 innings, and delivered a complete-game victory. The Astros stayed alive. The promise, though? That was supposed to stay in the moment, filed away as locker room lore.
Instead, Drayton McLane made it official. A Caterpillar D6N XL bulldozer—a machine that weighs 41 tons and costs north of $300,000—was formalized as a contract clause. Roy Oswalt didn’t just get paid his salary. He got paid in heavy equipment.
The Machine That Went Home to Mississippi
The Houston Astros ultimately lost that series to the Cardinals in six games, but the bulldozer clause stuck. When the paperwork cleared, Roy Oswalt took possession of a piece of industrial machinery and transported it to his ranch in Mississippi, where it sat as one of baseball’s most unusual signing bonuses.
This wasn’t a freak accident or a loophole. Drayton McLane, the owner of the Houston Astros at the time, kept his word. The man who built his fortune in the grocery business (he owned McLane Company, a major food distributor) understood that a deal was a deal—even when the deal involved tracked earthmoving equipment.
For Roy Oswalt, it was validation on two levels. First, his manager believed in him enough to stake something real and valuable on his arm. Second, he’d done his job. In a sport where performance is everything, Oswalt had performed. The bulldozer was just the exclamation point.
Why This Still Matters
Twenty years later, the Oswalt bulldozer story endures because it captures something pure about baseball: the relationship between owner and player when trust is on the line. This wasn’t a massive free-agent contract or a record-breaking deal negotiated by agents in Manhattan offices. It was a moment, a promise, and follow-through.
In 2024 and beyond, when contract negotiations often feel clinical and distant, when mega-deals are announced with press releases and legal footnotes, the image of Roy Oswalt winning that game and driving away with a D6N XL reminds fans that baseball still lives in those human moments. A manager believes. A pitcher delivers. A promise gets kept.
Roy Oswalt finished his career with 163 wins and a 3.36 ERA. He was a legitimate ace for Houston during their competitive years in the 2000s. But ask any baseball fan what they remember most vividly, and it’s not always the strikeout totals. It’s the bulldozer. It’s Drayton McLane making good on a wild bet. It’s the idea that in baseball, sometimes the most memorable contracts aren’t the ones with the biggest numbers—they’re the ones that come with a story.
The bulldozer is long gone from headlines, but the clause lives on in baseball lore. It’s a reminder that even in a sport built on stats and salary caps, the best moments still belong to the people who make them happen.
The number: Roy Oswalt won Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS for the Houston Astros, and owner Drayton McLane delivered on his promise: a Caterpillar D6N XL bulldozer worth over $300,000, formalized as a contract clause.
