Champion . . . or Chump?

One week ago, no one had heard of Christian Lopez, except for family members, some friends, and his girlfriend. Saturday, with one simple act, his national status leaped to folk hero – or phenomenal chump. Depends on who you ask.

All Lopez did was catch a homerun in Yankee Stadium. The homer happened to be hit by the Yankees’ Derek Jeter, and it just happened to be the 3,000^th hit of Jeter’s illustrious career.

Lopez could have held the ball in a death grip, waiting to see how many thousands of dollars he could squeeze out of it. Instead, he gave the ball back to Jeter, saying the Yankee captain should have it. In some minds, Lopez became a champion, exhibiting selfless character. But to others, he became a chump, a fool unwilling to capitalize on his moment of serendipity.

In the end, Lopez wasn’t left empty-handed. The Yankees rewarded the 23-year-old with a personal meeting with Jeter (shown in the Associated Press photo above), season tickets for the remainder of the year (including post-season, if the team qualifies), and bats, balls and jerseys signed by the future Hall of Famer. Not a bad reward for selflessness.

Amazingly enough, many people still chastised Lopez for his magnanimous act. It’s understandable, I suppose, in a time when it’s seems common practice to take advantage of others whenever possible. “Ya gotta look out fah numbah one,” as they say in New York City.

Even some sports talk show hosts jumped on the bandwagon, questioning Lopez’s sanity in surrendering the ball without the promise of anything in return.

This last part astounds me the most. Sports commentators pontificate ad nauseum about athletes and coaches that act in self-interest. But these same “experts” seem to believe for ordinary people to act out of greed is not only normal but expected.

So it’s okay to be greedy, as long as your income is below a certain level? What level is that? If Donald Trump or Bill Gates had caught the ball and held onto it, that would have been greedy, right? But because Lopez wasn’t greedy, he’s an idiot?

Fact is, greed is an equal opportunity vice, and no respecter of income levels. A well-known billionaire once was asked a revealing question: “How much is enough?” To which he purportedly replied, “Just a little bit more.”

Frankly, I find it refreshing to hear about someone who did the right thing, rather than trying to calculate what he could get simply for being in the right place at the right time. I guess you could say that for him, it was the Christian thing to do.