CHRISTIAN LOPEZ - THERE ARE SOME GOOD PEOPLE OUT THERE

Before I get into the piece on Mr. Lopez, I want to vent on an item of mine that was stolen from a golf course. I went to the driving range this afternoon at the El Dorado Golf Course in Long Beach. I placed my bag outside of the pro shop like you are supposed to do and when I came back out my driver was gone from my bag. They say they are not responsible and I say yes you are. If you have a rule that says you can't bring your belongings inside of the pro shop than the patron of the course has every right to believe that his or her belongings are safe. The thief has to be left handed or a complete idiot because my Taylor Made R7 Driver is left handed. I hope that 1 - he isn't left handed and 2 - the person he sells the club to won't be able to hit it straight either.  More to follow.

Christian Lopez wouldn't of stole my club. Christian Lopez would of caught the thief and then he would of given the club back to me because that is the type of guy he is.

For what it is worth, Christian Lopez was raised right and he has probably played some sort of competitive sport to know that an item like Derek Jeter's 3000th hit ball, needed to be with Derek Jeter. He also knew that holding it for ransom was not the right thing to do.

Christian Lopez does the right thing and the Yankees and Derek Jeter are happy. Lopez gets gifts from the Yankees in the form of merchandise, seats for the rest of the season and he is part of Yankees history. Everyone is happy, the feel good story of the baseball season until the IRS says, "Nay, Nay."

The IRS is saying that all of these items are not gifts and he is going to have to pay $14,000.00 in tax on them. What kind of asinine world do we live in. Here you have a guy who wants to do the right thing and he ends up taking it in the shorts for $14,000.00. Really?!

Here is an idea, maybe the IRS can go after a few of the fat cats that own those $1500.00 seats. You know what seats I am talking about, the seats no one is ever sitting in. Find these owners and crawl up their ass with a microscope and figure out how much tax they are avoiding when they use those $1500.00 seats for a business write-off.  I'll bet you can get more than $14,000.00 out of at least two of those seat owners.

Can we just let this incident be about a historic moment in baseball and one fans love of the game and it's history.

And if the IRS is reading this, if you do crawl up someones ass and you find a left handed Taylor Made R7 driver, it's mine.