A home run gesture

Most of us will never get to be a part of Major League Baseball history.
But Christian Lopez has achieved just that.
Never heard of Christian Lopez?
He’s not a big league ballplayer? He’s not a manager or an owner or an umpire.
He’s a fan.
Specifically, he’s the guy who managed to retrieve Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
More than that — much more than that — he’s the guy who didn’t hold the ball for ransom or sell it to the highest bidder. He gave it to Jeter.
In an era when so much is measured in dollar signs, that’s a remarkably classy bit of behavior.
To be sure, Jeter and the Yankees showered the fan with a bunch of memorabilia and tickets. But that was after Lopez had made the decision to give the historic ball back to the future Hall of Famer who sent it out of the park.
“Mr. Jeter deserved it,” newspapers quoted Lopez as saying.
“I’m not going to take it away from him. Money’s cool and all, but I’m 23 years old. I’ve got a lot of time to make that.”
And with that gesture, the fan hit a home run of his own. —  J.R.[[In-content Ad]]