Give the Guy a Break

Christian Lopez, the guileless young man who caught Derek Jeter's dramatic 3,000th hit and asked for little more than some t-shirts and an autographed ball in return, could be facing a sizable tax bill that he can ill-afford. The Yankees gave him primo seats for the rest of the year and perhaps he could "StubHub" some of them, but that might not be permitted under the deal.

This would seem to call for his congresswoman, Nan Hayworth, to introduce some private legislation to have all the little treats the Yankees gave the kid officially declared to be gifts, and thus not taxable. It seems reasonable as he could conceivably have sold the ball for tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands - but reasonable is not necessarily a term embraced by the IRS for these types of things.