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Yankees Fan Who Caught Jeter's 3,000 Hit Gives Ball To Jeter
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 10, 2011
Modified Jul 10, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 10, 2011
Modified Jul 10, 2011
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Yesterday afternoon, Derek Jeter hit a home run to mark his 3,000 career hit—all of them as a Yankee—and the ball was caught in the left field bleachers by Christian Lopez, a 23-year-old upstate NY resident. Lopez, who is 6'5", described the moment, "I was taking a picture, hoping he would hit it, and the next thing I know, it's in the air and I see my dad diving across a crowd of people. My dad missed it, because he has awful hands. The next thing I know, I just saw the ball roll in front of me and I jumped on it. It was instinct." Also instinct: His decision to give the ball to Jeter!
Lopez said, "I saw the ball roll in front of me and I jumped on it. I was like 'Whoa this it, this is my chance!' I played football ... and I've gotten a couple of fumbles and I've been at the bottom of the pile a couple of times." As soon as he emerged with the ball, security whisked him away to meet the Yankees and press.
Experts estimated that the 3,000th run ball could earn six figures, but Lopez said, "Mr. Jeter deserved it. I'm not going to take it away from him. He's worked so hard for 15 years or so." In exchange for the ball, Lopez is receiving season tickets and other gifts, but he admitted, "My boss actually talked to me today. She said, 'You're going to keep the ball from me? You're fired."'
Lopez had received the tickets to the game as a gift from his girlfriend, who bought them for $65 each on Stubhub; he also took his dad and another friend. His father Raul Lopez said, "When I saw the ball went to him, I covered him. I knew it would be crazy, because I saw the Barry Bonds thing. You know it's going to be crazy because it's history." [Fun fact: The Barry Bonds home run ball was caught by a Mets fan!]
As for Jeter himself, the NY Times reports, "[This] puts Jeter ahead of the pace set by Pete Rose, the career hits leader, who retired at age 45 with 4,256. Jeter is signed for two more years, with a player option for 2014, but he said Thursday that Rose was not on his radar. 'You have to play another five years and get 200 hits to get that extra thousand,' Jeter said. 'You’re talking about a long, long time. You never say never, but it’s not something that’s on my mind.'"
Tagged
3000th hit
baseball
christian lopez
derek jeter
dj3k
Yankees
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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