It's been quite the week for Christian Lopez, the guy who caught the Derek Jeter home run at Yankee Stadium last Saturday that signified his 3000th MLB hit. After he gave the ball back—forfeiting a piece of sports memorabilia that could have netted him upwards of $250,000—everyone from sports bloggers to Jay-Z called him crazy. Then, after the Yankees announced they were giving him premium seats for the rest of the season as well as the postseason, reports trickled out that he could actually end up owing money to the IRS as a result of the ball.
But now some good is coming out of the story. Topps recently announced that they're giving Lopez his own baseball card, which will appear in box sets later this year. Sports memorabilia dealer Brandon Steiner and sporting goods CEO Mitch Modell just announced that they'll be giving Lopez about $50,000 in the coming weeks to help him pay down his student loans. And Miller High Life agreed to pay off the taxes he may owe and throw a party for him and his friends.
Looks like doing the right thing might actually pay off for this guy after all. [via theScore]
