I've been letting this marinate in my brain for a couple days. What would I have done in this situation? If I was lucky enough to be in Christian's position would I have given the ball back for the astonishing price of $0? FUCK NO! Now let me start off by saying that I do agree that it was a good deed and hopefully Jeter has something big planned for the kid but that is never a sure thing. A sure thing is that the ball he ended up with is worth big bucks and you can't just hand that over because it's "the right thing to do". In the end baseball is a business and when the fans are shelling out money hand over fist to buy tickets, pay for parking/food/beers/merchandise it would have been good to see a fan get something back for that. Jeter, Majestic, the Yankees, Modells, Steiner Sports... everyone made something off this 3,000th hit. Christian... not so much.
Who would have thought that the 3,000th hit from Mr. Ground Ball would leave that little league field in the BX. Lucky enough for Mr. Lopez it did and he even got to watch the rest of the game from Steinbrenner's box. YIPPIE!
Every day that Jeter suits up in pinstripes he is making more money than most do per year. I feel like Christian made a quick decision when the Yankees immediately whisked him away and asked "What do you want?" instead of really thinking about it. Baseball players are lucky enough that us fans line their pockets with money just to watch them play a game. They get paid millions of dollars from contracts and endorsements to be an athlete and when something as monumental as a 3,000th hit baseball lands in your lap you NEED to negotiate a fair price. I'd feel the same if I caught the ball and we were talking about the Mets. Nobody would have blamed the 23 year old cell phone salesman if he chose to make a little green off his lucky seat. A cool $500,000 wouldn't put a dent in Jeters bank account. For everyone else that is life changing.
Taking a photo with Jeter and getting to meet Reggie Jackson and Jay Z isn't worth ripping up the winning lottery ticket.
Hold up... the Yankees gave you some signed balls, jerseys and tickets to the rest of the 2011 season at "The" stadium? Wow, that is ALMOST equivalent. What a bonehead move. Can't take it back now kid... way to blow it.
Even though he is a Yankee fan I wish the kid gets more than his 15 minutes of fame. Maybe a commercial? Now it's time to "do the right thing" for Jeter. Step up and throw the kid a bone.
I totally agree. Screw the argument that it was the right thing to do. The right thing for Jeter to do this offseason is realize how much he was worth and not hold out for 15+ million dollars a year. But what did he do...he held out for the money. Mr. Lopez should have done the same exact thing.
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