If the IRS ever decides to go after Christian Lopez, the 23-year-old who caught and returned Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit, he need not worry. Publicity-smelling companies have his back. Yesterday the Times and the News both ran stories speculating on the tax hit that Lopez might receive if the IRS decides to tax him for the gifts he got from the Yankees in return for giving the ball back to Jeter. They modestly estimated that the tickets, bats, jerseys and balls given to Lopez were worth about $50,000, which could mean the kid with $100,000 in student loans could wind up owing the taxman $14,000.
Lopez assured news outlets that if taxed he would pay up, but now he doesn't have to. Yesterday Miller High Life issued a statement saying that they would happily cover Lopez's bill. "Miller High Life believes you should be rewarded for doing the right thing, not penalized," Miller High Life brand manager Brendan Noonan said in a statement. "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."
And that is not all. Modell's is supposed to announce later this afternoon that five percent of all sales at its Times Square location between July 13-19 will be donated to Lopez to help pay his student loans and any taxes he's accrued. Which, wow. If we knew all we had to do get our student loans paid off was catch statistically significant baseballs from the stands we'd probably go to more baseball games!
