From unknown to unbelievable, one baseball fan’s decision to do what’s right over what was sensible, has forever changed his life — for the better

SCOTT JACOBS

This time last week chances are no one knew who Christian Lopez was.  Well, besides his friends, family, and maybe some work buddies.  But in the scope of things he was just your average working joe, trying to pay off a mountain of college loans living in New York.

Then something almost Disney-esque happened.  He went to the Rays-Yankees game on Saturday and caught a ball.  But not just any ball: Lopez snagged Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit, a homer from the iconic Yankees shortstop, making him the first Bronx Bomber to ever reach the hallowed mark.  One baseball, in a sport where they use roughly 113,000 balls a season, would change Lopez’s life.  It was the ball that unlike most of the other 113,000 put into play a year, that actually carried some real value.

And now, some joe schmo mobile phone salesman is a national sensation. Not because he caught the ball, but because of what he did after: returning it to Jeter instead of putting it out on the open market, where experts suggested he could have gotten at least $100,000.

Probably can’t say I would have done the same (just being honest), but I admire Lopez for doing what would be perceived as the right thing.  It’s not like Lopez left empty handed: the Yankees made sure he got luxury box seats for the rest of the year, autographed balls, and other cool stuff, but it still paled in comparison to the six figures he could have fetched had he kept the ball.

But now, his good deed is getting repaid. Big time.

Today, Topps announced they would make a special trading card featuring Lopez, to be included in sets later this year.  Yup, Lopez is getting his own Topps trading card.

But that’s not even the best part.

Lopez is also going to receive at least $50,000 towards his student loans, which are somewhere in the range of $150,000. An auction will be set up which will include baseballs autographed by not just Jeter, but by Lopez as well.

It’s quite a story for a kid who was just another baseball fan in a sea of navy blue and gray on Saturday. You never know when your life might change.  For Lopez, his big break came because he went against the grain.  In doing so he became a national feel good story and reminded us what’s great about sports: its ability to surprise us.

Because let’s face it: if we always knew what was going to happen, none of us would watch.

Photo: Getty

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