11/05/24
January 23, 2006
From the "Where Are They Now?" file...:
In October 1996, a young boy helped a big league team win a baseball game. They went on to win the World Series and restart a dynasty. That young boy is a man now, and has dreams of playing professional baseball himself.
And he just might make those dreams come true.
Great Story. Sounds like young Mr. Maier does have his head screwed on correctly. It will be interesting to see if and whe he is drafted. I am sure I wont be the only one that wil be following his career. Thanks for the link, Grum.
posted by daddisamm at 12:24 PM on January 23, 2006
Is "helped a big league team win a baseball game" meant as a euphemism for cheated? Considering how O's fans have got to feel about that play, I hope Maier isn't drafted by Baltimore.
posted by rcade at 12:35 PM on January 23, 2006
rcade -- I think cheating, by definition (by my definition at least), is something that must be done by, or with the approval/complicity of, the competitors. What Maier did was interfere. The only "cheating" is that the O's got cheated by a bad call by the umpiring crew -- Jeter should have been out on fan interference.
posted by holden at 12:44 PM on January 23, 2006
Fan interference is against the rules, which is cheating by another name. It's not Maier's fault that Rich Garcia blew the call and the other umpires didn't overrule him, and Maier has a well-deserved place in baseball lore. But let's not kid ourselves -- the kid broke the rules and got away with it. There's a story on Epinions from a fan who pestered Maier at college.
posted by rcade at 01:22 PM on January 23, 2006
If they don't want the fans to catch the balls why are they allowed to keep them? Why are they allowed to bring in glove? Not cheating, just ignorance to the situation. If that was a crime...you and I would be inmates.
posted by tmart937 at 01:27 PM on January 23, 2006
rcade -- it appears the difference between our points is purely semantic, not substantive. I agree with everything you say; I just don't think there should be any implication (and I'm not saying there is from your comments) that either of the teams participating in that game in some way cheated -- that's why I would shy away from using that word.
posted by holden at 02:05 PM on January 23, 2006
How many threads do we read through where people post comments down the lines of "it's a part of the game" when talking about blown calls by umpires or referees. This wasn't cheating, because, who cheated? Did the Yankees tell this kid to reach over and grab the ball? Did the umpires get together and say, "That kid reached over and caught the ball. Let's not call it so the Yankees can win." No. It was a blown call by the umpires, one of thousands upon thousands in the history of the game. Umpires make mistakes, and these guys thought they were making the right call at the time. Many replays (which were of no use to the umpires) showed the call was wrong. What are you going to do? As for the story, it's interesting and sounds like Maier is handling his ongoing notoriety well.
posted by dyams at 03:27 PM on January 23, 2006
This wasn't cheating, because, who cheated? The kid. Fans are capable of cheating to affect the outcome of a sporting event. I'm reminded of the guy who yelled "out" during a Wimbledon match a few years ago, causing a player to give up on the return volley.
posted by rcade at 04:42 PM on January 23, 2006
Is "helped a big league team win a baseball game" meant as a euphemism for cheated? No, it's meant as "helped a big league team win a baseball game". I think there has to be some sort of "intent" to cheat for it to be considered cheating. What you have is a twelve year-old kid, at a playoff game, watching a ball hit by his favourite team (and probably his favourite player). It gets closer and closer and he realizes he might be able to catch it. He tries, flubs it, and that's it. I seriously doubt the idea of interfering in the play ever crossed his mind. I doubt he considered that by making an attempt, he'll deny Tony Tarasco a chance at catching the ball. The only thing probably going through his mind is "catch it catch it catch it". Not "cheat cheat cheat".
posted by grum@work at 06:15 PM on January 23, 2006
The only thing probably going through his mind is "catch it catch it catch it". Not "cheat cheat cheat". That's well put, grum. A twelve-year old kid wants to have the thrill of catching a home-run ball at Yankee Stadium. He probably thought about nothing else from the moment he found out where his seats were. Then, all of a sudden, here's a ball flying towards him. He want the ball. He's not intentionally trying to alter the outcome of the game. All stadiums with seats directly behind the fence or right along the foul lines tempt fans with the possibility of catching balls. Even when the ball is actually in the stands (Bartman), teams, players and entire cities claim the fan was at fault. It's part of the game, by design, in many ballparks.
posted by dyams at 06:55 PM on January 23, 2006
I have to agree with grum and dyams. The notoriety that kid got for his instinct to catch a ball that was flying in his direction had to be overwhelming -- the kid deserves mad props (or whatever the kids are saying these days) for even wanting to be around a baseball diamond anymore. I also have to say, though, that Wesleyan doesn't exactly scream Ready-For-Prime-Time in the baseball world. I don't really know how many Div III kids get drafted, but my guess is that the number is really, really small.
posted by BullpenPro at 07:24 PM on January 23, 2006
"I don't really know how many Div III kids get drafted, but my guess is that the number is really, really small." Probably, but if you're going to take a chance on a kid from that level, you could do worse than take one who hits with power, is a good glove man up the middle, and comes with built-in press.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 08:14 PM on January 23, 2006
incidentally, behind the right field wall at the stadium there's now a railing that they swing up during the game to prevent fans from reaching over (they keep it down during batting practice). not sure if they have it in left field though.
posted by goddam at 08:46 PM on January 23, 2006
kudos to Jeff Maier!what a sensible young man w/his head on straight!all the best to him in life,he's already a success!!!