Christian Lopez Did What He Needed to Do...

So let's set the record straight. If your boyhood hero hit a milestone, and you had a chance to be a unique part of it, you SHOULD do the noble thing and make a contribution to that hero.

In case you weren't aware, Derek Jeter of the Yankees hit a homer to reach the 3,000 hit plateau for his career. As a rule, I can't like a Yankee, being a Phillies fan, but I have always thought that Jeter has done it right. He is a super player, and he has been classy along the way. If I were asked to try to like a Yankee, he would be the first choice.

Christian Lopez, a 23 year old fan in the stands for the event, had the great fortune to catch the ball that capped Jeter's pursuit of 3,000 hits. Naturally, eschewing the instinct to see the good luck as a chance to cash in - by holding someone hostage to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the piece of memorabilia, the young man decided to be as classy as his hero, by returning the ball, with no demand for payback.

Sure, he said he'd like to meet Derek, and he thought an autograph or two would be nice, but in the end he made no demands. Had he been me, a fifty-year-old guy who can't elevate these professional athletes to a pedestal anymore, perhaps one could question the decision. But given the circumstances, he did what he had to do.

My first ballplayer hero was Larry Bowa, who didn't ever get near the milestone of 3,000 hits. So to try to make a half-decent comparision, let's say I came up with a ball he hit for a ground rule double in the 1980 World Series, and let's say that hit clinched the Series win. At that moment, I would want the chance to be part of Larry's finest moment - for the rest of my life, and his. A picture with him would have sufficed. For much of his early career, the Phillies were terrible, and still I loved watching him play. I would not have had a chance of seeing my fortune to be financially lucrative.

All the columnists and talk radio guys are being short-sighted, and therefore, predictably foolish. The ball isn't a lottery ticket, except in the sense that it can represent a stroke of luck that binds a regular boy and his baseball hero forever. That boy can tell that story for the next fifty or sixty years. To some extent, I think it justifiable if the boy says he is simply going to keep the ball, put it on his mantlepiece, and maybe someday donate it to the Yankee museum, or the Baseball Hall of Fame, or maybe leave it to his own children, so they can continue the story.

The point is that we are all bound in our decision-making by the forces that control us at any given point in time. Middle age men don't have the ability to idol worship anymore, unless the subject is their own children, or later, grandchildren. To me, Derek Jeter is a kid playing ball for lots of money; he is not a model of what I want to be someday. Likewise, I couldn't feel that same allegiance to any of the current Phillies, for whom I love to cheer. Ryan Howard's 800th homer - yes I am being a bit silly - would go on the market should I be the one to catch it. Ryan could certainly make a reasonable bid that I would be inclined to accept, but the money would be more improtant to me now. Perhaps that means I have grown old and jaded, but I have earned each smudge and smear on that once pristine soul.