Fan Appreciation Day – it’s a staple of MLB ball parks alike as a way to get fans to feel like they’re not throwing their money away during the doldrums of a 162 game season. Basically the concept behind Fan Appreciation Day posits that if you hand the first thousand fans some free plastic bats (that cost the team 3 cents apiece to make) and raffle off a few gift certificates from area restaurants they’ll feel better about showing up game after game.
And sometimes the prizes aren’t half bad. You know, like free doughnuts for a year. Who wouldn’t want to gorge themselves on glazed and jelly rolls for a year or get to be the guy who always brings in doughnuts to the office? Everybody loves that guy. But what happens when a free prize actually costs you money? Well, Houston Astros fan Bob Choate had to find that out the hard way.
After winning free doughnuts for a year from Shipley’s Doughnuts (who has pretty awful doughnuts anyway) at Astros Fan Appreciation Day last year Choate probably thought he had it pretty sweet. Then it came time to do his taxes and Shipley had to pay $237 in taxes on his doughnut winnings, valued at $927.61.Pretty nice prize, eh? I wouldn’t pay $237 for doughnuts even if I got a key to the store and got to ride on their Christmas parade float.
The tale does have a happy ending as Lawrence Shipley, the owner of the doughnut shop, came to this guy’s rescue and wrote him a check for the difference, no thanks to the Astros who basically told Choate he was up Doughnut Creek without a coffee straw on the tax issue. They did give him four tickets to the home opener and a baseball signed by steroid freak Jeff Bagwell, which makes the doughnut deal look pretty good in comparison. Given the choice between watching the Astros suck it up or a free dozen bear claws I’d probably take the latter.
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