This story doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. The fan who caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000-hit home run ball is now in his 12th minute of his 15 minutes of fame.
Christian Lopez found out earlier this week that he could be taxed on gifts given to him by the New York Yankees for giving the ball back to Jeter. But he was never worried about Uncle Sam knocking on his door, and now we know why.
Lopez, a 23-year-old cell phone salesman who has over $100k in student loan debt, is receiving offers to pay off possible taxes on the gifts given to him on top of many other offers, according to Yahoo! Sports.
Lopez appeared on the Today Show Wednesday morning with Al Roker and Matt Lauer asking him questions on what he would do about the taxes:
“I’m trying to stay away from that situation now,” Lopez said. “I’m trying to just enjoy the moment. I mean, if I get taxed, I get taxed. … But’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
The Yankee fan has received an offer by the trading card company Topps to make him his own baseball card as well as an offer from Miller High Life to pay the possible taxes on the gifts and to sponsor a beer party for the phone salesman, according to CNBC reporter Darren Rovell. Modell’s, the sporting goods store, has also offered to put a program in place to take care of any expenses that might come Lopez’s way.
Sounds like Lopez might have gotten a better deal by giving up the ball, but who knows how much he would’ve gotten in offers if he would have kept it.