Christian Lopez, the 23-year old cell phone salesman who caught and returned Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit, went from hero to victim to saved in a whirlwind of events that must have seemed like thirty seconds and thirty days at the same time.
Lopez caught Jeter's historic home run last week and was covered in a pile of celebratory chaos and greed. Everyone wanted that ball. That ball was probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Surviving the pile, he then did what any lower-middle class sports fan with roughly $100,000 in student loans would do...he gave it away.
You read that right. He called up the Yankees and gave the ball to Jeter.
Let's first mention what an incredible act this was. This young man could have paid off his debts and still had thousands of dollars to sit on. Instead, he's a celebrity. An urban hero.
ESPN tried to conduct an interview with him at Yankee Stadium a few days later and fans swarmed to him. His fans. He signed autographs and posed for pictures. They wanted to meet "him", potentially almost as much as they want to meet Jeter or A-Rod.
The attention didn't stop there. The Yankees had some gifts of thanks for him: a suite for the remainder of this season's home games...including the playoffs and different memorabilia signed by the Yankee shortstop.
Awesome story, right? Guy catches ball. Guy gives ball back. Guy gets cool shit. Wrong. The IRS reads the news, too.
Apparently his rewards could total almost one million dollars and the IRS might want their cut. In an interview with ESPN after rumors of the tax hit, Lopez flatly states, "I was stunned...It kinda sucks, to be honest with you." He had a hard time finding his words. I don't blame him.
So just as quickly as he climbed to the top, reality dragged him down to the tune of what could be up to a $14,000 tax bill. The IRS sure knows how to reward good acts.
But then, as word spread of the potential penalties, knights in shining armor started lining up.
Mitchell Modell, the CEO of Modell's Sporting Goods which is a sponsor of the Yankees, had more gifts. For one week, Lopez will receive a percentage of all Yankee merchandise sold at his stores that could climb into the tens of thousands of dollars (an offer that would later be matched by Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports). To top that off, Modell gave Lopez his 2009 World Series Championship ring.
And as if that wasn't enough, everyone's favorite champagne of beers also stepped up. Miller High Life recently announced that it would cover any tax debts that Lopez may incur. Brand manager Brendan Noonan released this statement:
Miller High Life believes you should be rewarded for doing the right thing, not penalized. We want to recognize Christian Lopez, and in turn everyone like him, for doing the common sense thing and help him continue to live the High Life.That's putting your money where your advertising is. There couldn't be a better story for the "Living the High Life" campaign.
Want to share in the experience and history? You will be able later this year when Topps will include a Christian Lopez trading card in their next baseball card sets. How do you like them apples, IRS?
This story really makes my body tingle. In a world caught up in murder trials and debt ceilings, there's still good people in this world.
First there was the cell phone salesman who just wanted to do the right thing. Then there was the companies who came to his rescue. There was no obligation for any of them to do what they did. Sure they'll get PR boosts from it, but I really don't think that would matter.
My only wish is that instead of opening up CNN's web page and finding out about terror in India and the fact that Rodney King was arrested, I'd find a heart-warming story. A story of charity with a happy ending.
Oh look..on the bottom of the page there's an article about a third grader her saved his sister from drowning. The twenty-sixth link.
*sigh*
