Topps To Create Baseball Card For Fan Who Returned Jeter Ball

NEW YORK (AP) -- The fan who returned Derek Jeter's ball from his 3,000th hit will get a bit of personal memorabilia -- his own baseball card.

Topps will produce a trading card featuring Christian Lopez that will be included in sets later this year. Company vice president for sports Mark Sapir says Topps employees were impressed by Lopez's selfless act.

The 23-year-old could have kept the ball and sold it for a small fortune. Instead he said Jeter deserved to have the keepsake.

Sapir says Topps also will have Lopez choose the image for its 2012 Derek Jeter card.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)