The Maier Thing

As soon as I saw the Yankees would be playing the Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS,  I knew (and everyone else did too) that Jeffrey Maier's name would be brought up..again...and again...and again. In fact Yahoo Sports interviewed him and a number of Orioles' fans about that fateful October, 16 years ago.

Some observations right off the bat (no pun intended), if you consider 16 years later right off the bat (I feel exactly now as I did then): Maier should not have reached over for the ball. Granted he was just 12-years old at the time, so you have to give him somewhat of a pass for that. But his parents made a big mistake the following morning when they paraded him around all the local television networks and did countless interviews with the print media.

They should not have celebrated the fact that the kid clearly interfered with the baseball. In today's game, instant replay would have had the call overruled and perhaps Maier might have been vilified (though likely Tony Tarasco catches Derek Jeter's drive had he not been interfered with) in the same manner as Steve Bartman n Chicago.

As for the Orioles fans, it's totally understandable that they were upset then and still are upset today. However, the one fan is wrong in saying the Yankees, or actually Maier, stole the World Series from them. There's no telling what might happened in the remainder of the game (Remember, Armando Benitez was pitching) or the rest of the series.

Also, the dude with the goatee, earrings, nose ring, and a splotch of orange paint across his face really gave me the creeps.