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NEW YORK — Derek Jeter has his 3,000-hit ball.
Christian Lopez, who corralled the homer off Rays pitcher David Price in the leftfield stands, traded it for Yankees memorabilia and tickets worth $180,000 less because he sees it as the right thing to do.
Lopez, a mobile-phone salesman from Highland Mills, N.Y., returned the ball rather than sell it for as much as $250,000. The Yankees' gifts to him are worth about $70,000.
"Mr. Jeter deserved it," Lopez said at Yankee Stadium after Jeter reached the milestone Saturday. "Yeah, money is cool and all, but I'm only 23 years old. I have a lot of time to make that."
Lopez came away with three bats, three balls and two jerseys signed by Jeter, the Yankees' captain and 28th major-leaguer to have 3,000 career hits.
The bats Lopez got are worth $1,000 to $1,200, the balls sell for $500 and the jerseys are worth $1,500, said Brandon Steiner, CEO of Steiner Sports Marketing Inc., in New Rochelle, N.Y.
The team also gave Lopez four Champions Suite tickets for 31 remaining regular-season home games and any playoff games. The seats are worth $37,000 to $62,000 for the rest of the regular season, according to the Yankees' website.
Some tickets sold for about $200 on the secondary market but Lopez said his girlfriend paid about $65 apiece to buy seats 10 days earlier for his birthday.
A 2010 graduate of St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., Lopez said he jumped on the ball after it bounced off his father's hands. Some fans tried to wrest the ball but Lopez said he had experience recovering fumbles while playing football in college.
Doug Allen, president of Chicago's Legendary Auctions, said last month that the ball might be worth as much as $250,000. And Lopez might also face a tax liability on the worth of the goodies he got from the Yankees, said Paul Caron, a tax professor at the University of Cincinnati law school and author of Tax Prof Blog.
But to Lopez, it was hard to put a price on Saturday.
"It didn't even cross my mind until (the team) asked me what I wanted," he said. "The only thing I could think of was a signed ball would be nice and to meet him. It wasn't about the money, it's about a milestone."
Lopez said he was "star-struck" to meet Jeter and was thrilled about the memorabilia and experiences such as walking through parts of the stadium most fans don't get to see.
"He probably could have gotten more money, but maybe something good will come of it now that he has this relationship with the Yankees and Derek," Steiner said in a phone interview. "Meeting Derek and getting all those things signed is still a pretty cool thing for a lot of people and valuable in its own right."
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