It has been a really good week for Christian Lopez. When the 23-year-old woke up on Saturday he had $100,000 in student loans and nobody knew his name. Then he went to a Yankees game and caught Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit, and he returned it for which he was showered with gifts from the Yankees. That alone could make for a good week for most people. But it gets better. After the media, us included, got worked up about the tax implications of the gifts to Lopez a number of companies lined up to help him pay. But still, it gets better.
In addition to the offer to pay his taxes from Miller Light, Mitchell Modell, chief executive of Modell’s Sporting Goods, and Brandon Steiner, chief of the memorabilia company Steiner Sports, have each pledged to pay $25,000 to Lopez to help him pay off his student debts. In addition Modell will donate five percent of the earnings from Yankees merchandise sold at his shops over the next week to Lopez. And that is not all.
Modell also gave Lopez a lifetime discount card to the sporting good store that bears his name and his personal 2009 Yankees World Series ring, which is estimated to be worth $40,000 (don't worry about the taxes on that gift, this year "there is a $5 million exemption on taxable gifts."). And as if that weren't enough to make a cellphone salesman cry uncle, it just keeps coming. Yesterday Topps announced on its Twitter that next year it will have a Christian Lopez card.
“I don’t know if there’s a cloud name for where I am right now,” Lopez told reporters yesterday. What ever it is called, Lopez should do his best to enjoy it. Statistically significant balls don't come hurtling at you every day!
