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Monday, November 11
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 18
The Last Shot
A No-Call on Yankee Fan’s Interference? You’ve got to be Kidding
By Kyle J. Martin
Sports Editor
It's been just about three
weeks since a certain 12-year-
old Little Leaguer from Old
Tappan, New Jersey, hit the
national spotlight for a certain
little catch he made, which in
effect aided and abetted the
Yankees' Derek Jeter and his
now-famous, 8th-inning home
run in the all-important first
game of the American League
(AL) championship series
against the Baltimore Orioles.
Young Jeffery Maier just
happened to be sitting in the
first row of the right-field
stands at just the right time —
for that's where the play took
place, giving him a
springboard to what can now
only be characterized as media
overkill and providing him
with more than his share of the
"15 minutes of fame"
everyone is supposedly
entitled to. Through the mere
act of reaching over the fence
in order to put his black
Mizuno glove out into fair
territory at the same time that
Orioles' outfielder Tony
Tarasco reached out his glove,
Maier just might have
prevented Tarasco from
catching the ball, which, in
retrospect, could have very
well changed the whole
complexion of the series.
Would've, could've,
should've; had the proper call
been made, it sho' nuff would
have been different. You can
be sure the Orioles were
thinking this as they sat at
home watching the Yankees
represent them and all the
other AL teams in the World
Series against the Braves. And
to think: all of this fuss
because of a little kid and his
glove. Where's the justice in
all of this, you ask? What do
the rules say about
interference?
According Rule 3.16, the
official baseball playing rule
dealing with fan interference,
there will be no interference
called if a player "reaches over
a fence, railing, rope, or into a
stand to catch a ball . . . [h]e
does so at his own risk."
That's all well and good,
but what about the fans? The
rule also states that "should a
spectator reach out on the
playing field side of such
fence, railing, rope, [etc], . . .
plainfly] preventing] the
fielder from
catching the ball,
then the batsman
should be called
out for the
spectator's
interference."
Well, didn't
this case warrant
a call for
interference?
Certainly. Did it
get one?
Certainly not,
despite the
numerous replays
that clearly
showed
otherwise. What
is so interesting is
that the game was
called by six umpires instead
of the usual four, and someone
still blew it — that someone
being Rich Garcia, who has
become famous too as the star
of his own New York
docudrama, Ump On the
Hotseat, which, after three
weeks, is still playing to rabid
reviews in the New York area.
As for the 12-year-old
hooky-playing, game-stealing,
Yankee-loving, entourage
having, over-hyped kid, life is
good; in fact, life is real good.
After appearing on various TV
shows, among them "Good
Morning America" and "Hard
Copy" (he turned down
"Geraldo"), posing for
countless pictures, signing
numerous autographs, getting
a lunch platter named after
him by a local deli, and
receiving a special glove from
the Georgia-based Mizuno
glove company, it probably
would be fair to say that life
has been great.
When asked for his
comments on the situation,
Maier simply responded, "I'm
just a 12-year old kid trying to
catch a ball ... I didn't do
anything bad."
Sure you didn't, Jeff. All
you did was interfere with a
play that made you famous at
the expense of a franchise,
appear on TV and in every
newspaper and other form of
mass-media in the country to
the point of nausea, and help
engender a healthier amount
of disgust for the game of
baseball from this baseball-
hater. Other than that, Jeff, It's
All Good. You've had more
than your "15 minutes." Now
if you'll kindly drop out of
sight for say, another 30 years
or so, and stay away from
Yankee Stadium, you'll have
done more good than you
could ever imagine.
JJ
According Rule 3.16, the official
baseball playing rule dealing with
fan interference, there will be no
interference called if a player
“reaches over a fence, railing,
rope, or into a stand to catch a ball
... [h]e does so at his own risk.
//
Homecoming ‘96: Bison Dine at the House
By Myron G. Burney
Staff Writer
It was not exactly "Dinner
at the House" (as the slogan on
this year's Homecoming T-
shirts advertised), when the
Bison of Howard University
came to town to grapple with
the Maroon Tigers, but instead
turned out to be a "Dinner on
the House," as Morehouse
suffered a devastating 49-0
loss to their homecoming
rivals — their sixth straight of
the season — in front of a
capacity crowd of 12,123 at
B.T. Harvey Stadium.
The Bison, a Division I-AA
squad, came into the game as
one of the top offensive teams
in the Mid-Eastern Athletic
Conference (MEAC), and
didn't disappoint, quickly
putting numbers on the
scoreboard in the first quarter.
Led by the awesome arm of 6-
4, 215-pound sophomore
Quarterback Ted "Sweet
Flight" Williams, who threw
for 297 yards in only three
quarters of play, Howard had
a comfortable 27-0 lead by
halftime; from there, it was just
smooth sailing — all over the
overmatched Division II
Tigers, who were held to
under 100 yards for the game
by Howard's defense.
The Tigers desperately
need to finish off the season in
impressive fashion, if only to
win back the hearts of a
disappointed student body
and alumni. Many people
expressed their disbelief over
the game's outcome;
Howard's 49 points were the
most scored on 'Da House
since 1986, when the Tigers
lost 49-14. One individual
summed up the fan's
frustration best, saying,
"[Perhaps] those of us who
were sober enough to stagger
in the game should have
continued tailgating in the
Westview parking lot [to]
forget this ever happened!"
Maybe that's a little
extreme, but, needless to say,
this game was not one of the
Tigers' greatest moments.
With only two games left,
Morehouse has to win the rest
of their games in order to have
a shot at respectability. It can
certainly happen if they just
take it one game at a time —
say, a la carte?
Kyle]. Martin contributed to
this article.
Photo Courtesy of College Relations
The 1996 Maroon Tigers of Morehouse College
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