Over the weekend, Derek Jeter of the Yankees hit an almost Hollywood-scripted home run for his 3,000th hit (his first home run in Yankee Stadium since July 2010, by the way). The fan who caught the ball, Christian Lopez, gave it back to Jeter and wanted nothing in return. The Yankees, wanting to make the most of the PR opportunity, gave Lopez luxury box tickets to every home game for the rest of the season through the World Series as well as assorted signed bats, balls, jerserys, etc. Now, the Daily News is reporting that he will be on the hook for between $5,000 and $13,000 in taxes:

“He’s a great guy,” says Terry Ganer, a die-hard Yankees fan and accountant for Ganer Grossbach & Ganer in midtown. “But I’m pretty sure the tax man, unfortunately, is not a Yankee fan and will not look at this so sympathetically.”

Leave it to the IRS to put a damper on things…uh…I mean, I love the IRS and think that everyone who works there are wonderful people who I would probably love to hang out with after work or on a weekend and they are only doing their job.

Update: Several companies have come forward to not only pay any taxes he might be assessed for his gifts, but also his student loans. Topps will even put him on a baseball card next season.

Yesterday was baseball’s opening day, so here’s some baseball related stuff:

Yesterday was the start of the 17th consecutive season that Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera have played together. No trio in the history of baseball, basketball, football, or hockey have played that long together.

USA Today has a chart listing the highest paid player at each position. Five of the ten players listed are Yankees. I’m surprised it was only five.

USA Today also has an interactive database of team/player salaries. Alex Rodriguez will be paid $32 million this year. The Kansas City Royals entire team payroll this year will be $36 million.

The Mets will begin paying Bobby Bonilla over $1 million a year for the next 25 years, after releasing him in 2000. That’s more than 16 players on their current roster. The Mets have some other financial problems to deal with.

A shot by Michael Del Zotto of the NY Rangers, ricochets off a defenseman and right into a camera.  I’d say, “What’re the chances?” but a very similar thing happened in the ALCS a few weeks ago.

However, neither comes close to this bat on the what’s-the-chances scale.

Forbes has a special report on the business of baseball. Unsurprisingly, the Yankees rank number one in total worth with the Red Sox number two and the Mets number three. However, I am surprised that the Yankees, at $1.6 billion (yes, with a ‘B’), are worth almost twice as much as Boston at $870 million.

In 2009, smack in the middle of the worst economy in seven decades, baseball’s 30 franchises turned in a record-high operating income [...]