This past weekend, one of the two big stories (along with the U.S.A.'s win in the Women's World Cup) was that of New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter collecting career hit number 3,000. He's the 28th member of the 3,000 hit club, and only the second person to hit a home run for his 3,000th career hit.
As the ball went into the seats at Yankee Stadium, that means it inevitably wound up in the hands of a fan. . .in this case, a 23-year old cell phone salesman that was quoted as saying that he had some debts he could pay off. Now, some estimates placed the ball in question as being worth right around a quarter of a million dollars, which would certainly go a long way towards paying off a great deal of debt for a person.
But, rather than cashing it in and putting the ball on the open market, Lopez took a different tack. . .he simply returned the ball to Jeter. Don't get me wrong, the Yankees rewarded Lopez quite nicely. . .and the IRS is probably going to come knocking as a result. . .but what he's getting from the team is still a pretty far cry from a quarter of a million dollars.
As we know, football doesn't lend itself very well to this kind of thing. After all, when Adrian Peterson set the single-game rushing record, everybody knew where the football was. When Brett Favre threw his 500th touchdown pass, everybody knew where the ball was. Baseball, however, is subject to this kind of thing.
So, if you managed to find yourself holding a piece of history such as this, what would you do? Would you be able to do the "right thing" and just give it up, or would you cash it in to help yourself and your family in pretty tough economic times? Be as honest as you can, ladies and gentlemen.