IRS vs MLB

I'm not much for complaining about the government. Too overdone/doesn't get results. But I have to say that this bit of lunacy deserves a blog post.

So have you heard about the guy who caught Barry Bonds' historic home run? Turns out he's a Mets fan and just happened to be in SF for the game. So anyway, this lucky baseball fan gets to take home a little piece of baseball history. Good for him. But now he's going to owe a ton of money in taxes and can't keep the ball. (See the Yahoo news story here)

My question is this: What claim does the IRS have to this ball? Why does the guy owe money for catching a fly ball? Let the guy alone. This must be one of the most ludicrous tax laws I've ever heard of. If he sells the ball for thousands of dollars, then I think he owes a portion of that as taxes; but just keeping the home run ball shouldn't cost him a dime. He didn't purchase the ball. He has no money invested in earning the ball. He didn't start up his own company in an effort to catch historic baseball memorabilia. He just caught it for crying out loud. It's his free and clear and nobody should charge him a single penny for it.