Christian Lopez (who caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000th Hit and gave it to Jeter) is a Mensch

July 10th, 2011

Rather than demanding millions or trying to auction it, he gave it back, without any conditions, to Derek Jeter.

Instead of asking Jeter for millions of dollars or saying he was going to put the ball up for auction, Lopez decided he was just going to hand it over to one of his baseball heroes.

“Mr. Jeter deserved it. I’m not gonna take it away from him,” Christian Lopez said. “Money’s cool and all, but I’m 23 years old, I’ve got a lot of time to make that. It was never about the money, it was about the milestone.”

Really?

“That’s who he is,” Raul Lopez said. “My son could get a million dollars and he’d shrug his shoulders. He’d see a dog get hit by a car and he’d shrug his shoulders. It’s no big deal for him. He’s very cool and calm about everything.”

What a great guy! The Yanks gave him tons of memorabilia and VIP season tickets for the rest of the season.

Wouldn’t it have been funny if Jeffrey Maier (who is about a month younger than me!) caught it!