UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, October 10, 1996
3B
Deep home run leads to NY victory
Umpire admits call after child's catch was not accurate
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Bernie Williams didn't need help from a 12-year-old fan with his home run.
He hit it so deep into the left-field stands that even a fishing net couldn't have stopped it.
Three innings after young Jeff Maier stuck his glove over the right-field wall and created the controversial game-tying homer, Williams took Randy Myers deep for his fourth home of the postseason, giving the Yankees a 5-4, 11-inning victory against Baltimore on yesterday in Game 1 of the AL championship series.
"This is about as close as it comes to one play beating you," said Orioles manager Davey Johnson.
Maier's move gave an eight-inning homer to New York's Derek Jeter that tied the score 4-4. Baltimore's Tony Tarasco had settled under Jeter's fly ball against the 9-foot wall in right.
But Maier stuck out his gloved left hand — not even an autographed Mizuno model — above Tarasco's more expensive Rawlings model and pulled the ball away. Umpire Rich Garcia called it a home run, then admitted after looking at a replay that he blew the call.
"I thought it was out of the ballpark," Garcia said. "He reached out; he did not reach down. In my judgment, he did not interfere with the fielder attempting to catch the ball. It probably was a situation where the ball
"Sometimes you call it right,and sometimes you call it wrong."
Dorok Jeter
New York Yankee
would have hit the wall."
Garcia said that if he had looked at a replay before the call, he would have ruled the play a double. Tarasco disagreed.
"It was like a magic trick, really. I was about to close my glove," he said. "Merlin must be in the house, abracadabra somewhere."
Garcia said none of the other umpires saw the play well enough to overrule him. Johnson was ejected during the ensuing argument and protested because the Yankees didn't have security in the right-field corner to prevent interference.
During last week's first round of the playoffs, a fan in the left-field corner reached out to catch a home run down the line by Juan Gonzalez of the Rangers.
"I was told there would be security there so this would not happen." Johnson said.
Security was increased — but to prevent fans from throwing anything at Roberto Alomar, who spit on umpire John Hirschbeck on the last weekend of the regular season.
Alomar extended his slump to 7-for-36 by going 1-for-6 with three strikeouts. He made the final out of four innings, but did manage
a great defensive play when he threw out Cecil Fielder in the sixth while falling from his right knee on the center field grass.
Jeter, not exactly a power hitter, had 10 homers during the regular season.
"That didn't win the game, Bernie won the game," he said.
What he would say to Majer.
"Thank you. Reach over all you want." Jeter said. "It's just something that happens. Sometimes you call it right and sometimes you call it wrong."
Before Maier's magic, Brady Anderson and Rafael Palmeiro showed off some of Baltimore's record power, helping the Orioles take a 4-2 lead with solo homers.
Anderson's third homer of the postseason following 50 during the regular season tied the score 2-2 in the third. Palmeiro then led off the fourth with his second homer of the postseason.
Both homers were by left-handed batters off Andy Pettite, who started the opener instead of Cone because lefties have been more effective against the Orioles. Pettite allowed 23 homers in 34 regular-season starts, but just one was to a left-hander: the Rangers' Rusty Greer on April 14.
Baltimore came right back in the second on Eddie Murray's RBI groundout. New York went on back on top in the bottom half on Jim Leytz's run-scoring grounder.
It was the first postseason day game at Yankee Stadium in 15 years, and the famous sun field in left led to the game's first run. Tim Raines reached with a double when Orioles left lefter B.J. Surhoff couldn't see his leadoff fly ball, then came around on groundouts by Wade Boggs and Williams.
After the homers, Surhoff increased the lead to 4-2 with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly that followed Palmeiro's walk, Cal Ripken's single and Murray's walk.
Yankees defeat Orioles with help of kid's glove
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Jeff Mater, 12, skipped half a day of school to attend the first game of the American League championship series between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles.
Little did he know he would make one of the game's biggest plays.
Maier reached down over the right-field wall and took away from the Orioles' Tony Tarasco what would have been a routine fly out by Derek Jeter in the eighth inning of last night's game.
Tarasco was parked under the fly and reached up to make the catch when Maier's black glove swept the ball over the fence. Right-field umpire Rich Garcia, standing on the warning track, ruled that the ball was a home run, which gave the Yankees a 4-1 tie. The Yankees went on to win 5-4.
"I was just trying to catch the ball," said Maier, who lives in Old Tappan, N.J. "I bounced right out of my glove and bounced on the floor. I feel bad for the Baltimore fans, but as a Yankee fan, if I helped the team, I feel pretty good."
Maier didn't get his souvenir, which was snatched by another fan.
"I think I had a right to catch it because I thought it was going to go out," said Maier, who was attending his fifth game at Yankee Stadium.
Asked whether he thought he had interfered with Tarasco, Maier said, "I didn't think so. Maybe."
While Tarasco pleaded his case with Garcia, the rest of the Orioles on the field sprinted to right field along with manager Davey Johnson. Garcia ejected Johnson after a heated argument, and Yankees fans in the upper deck pelted the Orioles with debris.
Ozzie Smith enjoys Cardinals career
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — In a sense, it's already finished for Ozzie Smith.
On the eve of the NL playoff opener with the Atlanta Braves, the 41-year-old St. Louis Cardinals shortstop said it would be difficult to top the jersey-retiring ceremony at Busch Stadium before the next-to-last regular-season game.
Smith announced his retirement on June 19. Then came the triumphant final tour of the league.
"It can't get any better from that," Smith said. "From an emotional standpoint, that's probably as high as I'm going to get from this point forward."
A sellout crowd watched Hall of Famers like Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Stan Musial, broadcaster Bob Costas and Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee give testimonials that lasted so long the game had to be delayed about a half-hour.
"Think about what's happened in my life," Smith said.
Now he's playing baseball again, and the memories are hard to shake.
"You have a day for me and have 52,000 people cheering for me,
and you sit back and say, 'The hall of Fame may get better.' Well, it won't get any better than that."
That doesn't mean he won't be trying. As a backup, he probably outplayed Royce Clayton — 15 years his junior — with a .282 average, the usual acrobatics in the field and a knack for the clutch hit, and he wants to go out on the top of his game.
Last season Smith was at his worst. He underwent surgery in May to repair a 10-year-old shoulder injury. He batted .199 and experienced a sore arm after the operation. This convinced the Cardinals to shop for a replacement.
This year, Smith started 50 games and played so well that for a time he thought about reconsidering his decision to retire. In early September, he said he reserved the right to change his mind, but there were no regrets.
"I realized a long time ago that this time was going to come, so I've kind of prepared myself for it," he said. "I'll play as hard as I can for as long as I can, and hopefully that's right into the World Series."
'No spit zone,' fans heckle Alomar
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Yankee fans expressed their opinion about Roberto Alomar's spit by showing a little polish.
They simply booed.
They booed and heckled him during batting practice. They booed heartily during the pregame introductions — and even louder during his first at bat.
And those boos turned to thunderous cheers when he struck out in the first inning.
He gently laid down his helmet and bat, then teammate Bobby Bonilla brought his glove out to him as he took the field for the bottom of the first.
In the second inning, the crowd cheered derisively when Paul O'Neill's grounder kicked off the heel of Alomar's glove for an error. However, on the very next play, Alomar made a backhand flip to second on Mariano Duncan's grounder.
Despite concerns about violence — in the form of hurled batteries, or other projectiles — nothing flew through the air except a few expletives and unprintable chants.
Outside the stadium's bleacher entrance, a sign clearly warns: "Bottles, Cans, Coolers, Hard Containers are Prohibited in Stadium."
Greg Packer Long Island, N.Y.
"This is the Bronx, this is New York,and people are going to do what the want to do here."
Just below that clear caveat, Mary
Ippoliti of Schenectady, N.Y., held her own sign "No Spit Zone."
"I have a grandson and I wouldn't want him doing it," she said, who described herself as a Yankees fan through and through.
As for any violent actions against the Baltimore Orioles second baseman, she said: "I hope not."
But when Greg Packer of suburban Long Island, N.Y., happened by, he overheard her and offered: "This is the Bronx, this is New York, and people are going to do what they want to do here. I agree with her sign. But security people can only do so much."
dugout with about 10 camera crews — and many more burly, suited security guards — gathered around. He took batting practice with the first group of Orioles.
As he was talking to a teammate, one person yelled, "Hey Alomar, you're a pig."
Still, Alomar look relaxed, if not unfazed.
Security was beefed up for the game and Alomar entered the stadium through a different gate than the one used by the other players.
In the days leading to the opening game of the American League championship series, everyone seemingly had an opinion on the matter.
Alomar came out of the third-base
WFAN radio's Yankee beat reporter Suzyn Waldman exhorted listeners.
"I want no projectiles on the field today, guys. OK?" she said.
And one of her callers opined,
"Fans who live in glass houses
shouldn't throw batteries."
Yesterday morning, West Coast radio talk show host Dennis Prager discussed it on CBS's Late, Late Show with Tom Snyder — and that was after spending three hours on the topic on his own show.
And Comedy Central's Daily Show jumped in, exploiting the expectations about the expectorations.
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