REALLY BIG NEWS

By Edwin Cooney

I know I ought to be writing about something really significant such as the increasingly tense atmosphere in Washington, D.C. where President Obama and the GOP struggle with the upcoming August 1st debt limit deadline. Perhaps it would be more timely to write about the situations in Libya and Afghanistan, but I’ve chosen to write about a matter bigger than where it happened and its official significance.

At exactly 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 9th, 2011 at Yankee Stadium (wait a minute, all you nonbaseball fans, this is a human -- not a baseball -- issue!), Derek Jeter, Yankee Shortstop for the last16 years, became the first Yankee to get his 3,000th major league hit. In so doing, he became only the second player whose 3,000th hit was a home run -- the other player was Wade Boggs of the 1999 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. (Boggs spent eleven years with the Red Sox, five with the Yankees and two seasons with Tampa Bay.)

Of course, these days any ball hit into the stands belongs to the fan who catches it. Such wasn’t always the case into the 1930s in some stadiums. However, today it’s standard practice.

The increasing monetary value of historic sports memorabilia inevitably makes the fan a legitimate competitor in line with professional ballplayers, teams, and even the Baseball Hall of Fame for these items of otherwise limited use. This is important because competition means a new avenue of opportunity to strike it rich -- and what could be more important in Twenty-First Century America?

Within minutes of Derek Jeter’s historic hit/home run, a 23-year-old graduate of St. Lawrence University by the name of Christian Lopez, a salesman for Verizon who owes some 200,000 dollars in student loans and is, above all, a Yankee fan, became a New York celebrity just by dint of catching Jeter's ball. “Why?” you ask! Well, Mr. Lopez simply gave Derek Jeter the ball without asking to be paid for it.

What marvelous magnanimity that was, I thought to myself, through all of Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday -- until I arrived that night at my favorite "watering hole." There I encountered three friends, I mean really sweet people, who were incredulous over what they labeled Christian Lopez’s “stupidity.” How, they demanded to know, could a man who makes maybe $50,000 a year as a salesman (and perhaps less than that) be so utterly stupid as to give that historic baseball, undoubtedly worth several hundred thousand dollars, back to a “multi-million dollar a year baseball player" who works (or plays -- take your pick) for a multi-billion dollar organization. (They didn’t say it, but they were probably thinking: what’s this country coming to?)

I became incredulous in return. What was wrong with that? I wondered. Their reply was that some time in his life, Christian Lopez will be in financial difficulty and he, by having merely given the baseball back to Derek Jeter (and, even worse, indirectly to those money-grubbing Yankees), would have “stupidly but rightfully ” earned his poverty.

I suspected, even though they protested to the contrary, that much of their argument had to do with their anti-Yankee sentiments. Still, the gauntlet had been thrown down and I was honor bound to take it up. Hence, I proceeded to defend Christian Lopez and, of course, Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees. It was a splendid evening of friendly verbal combat!

I suppose it is as American as “baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet” to make an industry out of magnanimity, but it is dangerous. Once we lose the energy to give, because we need to spend as much of our time, opportunity, and energy hoarding money, this society will have become truly decadent. Of course, earthquake, Tsunami, and refugee relief (to name only a few very worthy causes) should rightfully have national priority. Specifically, although I align myself politically and spiritually with the poor, I fear the day when a man can be too rich to be rewarded.

As things have turned out, Christian Lopez is being rewarded for his good deed. The Yankees have given him their gift of a stadium luxury box for the remainder of the season and into the post season, and will undoubtedly pay the taxes for him. The monetary value of this gift is about $32,000. The Topps baseball card company is making a baseball card with Christian Lopez’s picture on it. The Steiner Sports Memorabilia company will give young Lopez a cut of its sales of Derek Jeter 3,000th hit merchandise. Thus, gratitude and justice prevail in New York City and at Yankee Stadium although I'm sure it may be surprising to many.

Of course, what happens in Afghanistan, Libya and in Washington, D. C. is of much greater urgency than anything that takes place on a baseball diamond. If we were to lose our national generosity and magnanimity, would it be huge news? Still worse, would we even notice our loss?

Christian Lopez’s thoughtfulness, generosity and magnanimity have already paid huge dividends in New York City, a place most people regard as both cold and ruthless. That we are still generous and magnanimous is pretty big news, if you ask me! Best of all, it’s happy news!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY