A baseball, or your student loans?
UPDATE: 5:32. Apparently the fan… the guy who gave the 3,000 ball back to Jeter? He may be liable for up to $13 k in taxes. Isn’t it great to be an American?
Kristen, Bruce and I would not be in this mess. All I’ll say about THAT one.
Now back to your original post.
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Jeter Cheater, whatever. So. 23-year-old makes the catch. You know the one. That epic, inflated number 3,000. Now, the ball is worth $250k. What does he do? He gives it back to Jeter.
Noble, right?
Kid has $100k in student loans. $250k-$100k is $150k.
Things that cost LESS than $150K. Food for starving people (like you, 23-year-old with $100k in debt). High interest mutual funds. Ponies. A down payment on a house. A car. A boat. A dock for the boat. A puppy. See where I’m going with this?
Say it’s David Ortiz. Or Jason Varitek. And this is miracle world. And this is hit number 3,000. Do you give it back? Do you keep it? Or do you say, bye-bye debt and smelly recession, hello boat and good credit?
Because, call me unsentimental, but it’s a ball. It’s cork, people. Cork and wool and rawhide. I looked it up on the internet. I only have (only, hah!) about $20k in debt, and I think I’d hock it. I’d hock it and I’d have $230k. I love you Tek. Desperately. But I know what your paycheck says and I know you could afford to buy it from me.
Does that make me a bad person? I’d hock it and use my $250k to pay off my debt, buy my boat and manipulate Kevin Youkilis into going for a sail. Because a sail is better than a piece of cork when it’s part of getting you out of debt. Does that make me heartless?
See, I have a moral conflict. It’s greatly troubling.
Does this make a… YANKEES fan a… *gasp* better person than me?
What would you do? Really? Be honest…
~L
I was discussing this with my mother other day.lol I would do the same thing as you.
I am the working poor. I would be selling the ball.
Ortiz’s 50th homerun ball was given back to him and he sold it for charity. F444 that. I am charity.lol
Coworker just pointed out, “but what if you were a bazillionaire?” THEN i would donate it to charity because I would already HAVE the boat. I don’t think I would even consider giving it back to Jeter or Ortiz or whoever. Does that make me horrible?
I wouldn’t give it back to any Yankee. I would rather blow it up then let one of them be happy. Rich or not rich.
I might give it back to Ortiz if I was rich. No you are not horrible. You are a smart business women.
Hard to say what I would do without actually being in the moment…but I THINK I would walk out of the stadium thanking everyone for not mugging me…with the ball secure in my possession…and head straight for my lawyer’s office to begin negotiations. Mo money.