Money ball

Matt Murphy has sticker shock. Remember him? The guy who caught Barry Bonds' record-shattering baseball?

John Barrie, a tax lawyer with Bryan Cave LLP, says Murphy might be in for the tax bill of a lifetime.

Even if he decides not to sell the ball, it doesn't matter. Murphy would still owe taxes based on a reasonable estimate of its value ($600,000). Capital gains would also come into play if the ball appreciates in value.

"It's an expensive catch," Barrie told the Associated Press.

Like the mob, the IRS always gets its "taste." Take the alternative minimum tax. Upset that a small number of high-net-worth individuals were using perfectly legal tax reduction strategies, Congress imposed an extra set of regulations to ensure they were snared. Congress being Congress, they didn't link the qualifying threshold to inflation. That was 1960.

Today, more Americans affected by the AMT are crying for relief. Congress (thankfully) is listening, and so too, it seems, are fund companies. Specialty mutual funds that help reduce the AMT are increasingly popular. In this month's Fund Watch, Christine Benz, director of research with Morningstar, lists some her favorites. Narrow-focus, niche-type funds that solve specific problems like the AMT are now more available to the general investing public. But do they genuinely help, or are they the same old fund products slapped with a different label? Freelance writer David Port explores the question in "Funds that fill a niche". Socially responsible investing and mutual fund fee structures are also extensively covered.

If you're starting to see a pattern, there's a clear reason. It's September -- time for our annual mutual fund issue and, of course, my Red Sox's storied slide.

John Sullivan