Baseballs And Taxes

Last Friday, Baltimore Oriole's rookie third baseman, Manny Machado, hit the first home-runs of his young career. Impressively, he hit his first two homers in only his second major league game, making him the youngest Oriole to have a multi-homer game.. But what's even more impressive, is that the same fan caught both of Machado's home-run balls.

Of course, at this point, only time will tell if the balls will have an monetary value. I mean, if Machado should go on to have a Hall of Fame career, the first home-run ball would surely be worth something. But for right now, personal value for Machado (or the fan who caught them) is all that's in it....

On the other hand, when a bona fide slugger, such as Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriquez, hits a historical home run (500th, 600th, etc.), it's becomes an instant ball of gold. And because of that, the fan who catches the ball could wind up getting a visit from the tax man. However, I'm a bit confused on the tax consequences. I have read through some sources that the ball would be subject to tax on the present year's income. But in some cases, the ball is returned to the player. So, is the player now expected to pay a large tax just because he happened to hit a monumental home-run? Talk about a buzz kill!

Recently, Derek Jeter of the NY Yankees, got his 3000th career base hit. As luck would have it, this particular hit happened to be a home-run that landed in the left field stands. And you guessed it, a fan picked it up. The fan, feeling that it was the right thing to do, returned the ball to the Yankees. In return, the Derek Jeter gave the guy some signed bats and jerseys and the Yankees gave him luxury seats for the season;s remaining home games. Sounds like a win-win, right? Not so fast, because of the value of these items, especially the seats, the fan might be looking at a tax bill in the neighborhood of $14,000! Ouch! Personally, I think the Yankees should offer to cover any tax consequences for the guy considering that he could have likely gotten much more for the ball if he would have sold the ball on the open market.

So this brings up some interesting questions. If I go to a potentially historical baseball game and happen to be sitting in the outfield section, should I buy an extra ticket for my tax lawyer? Maybe I should bring my laptop loaded with the latest version of Turbo-Tax? Or are we slowly reaching a point where fans will crawl over each other to get away from the ball altogether? I can see it now, "I'm not picking it up, you pick it up!!"

I dream of catching a valuable home-run ball one day and trading it in for a round of beers for the entire stadium, Of course, it probably wouldn't even cover the cost of the round at $8 a pop. Oh well, it was just a thought......

Who ever thought that going to a baseball game could get so complicated???

kw