October 9, 1996: Jeffrey Maier assists Derek Jeter’s game-tying homer in ALCS opener

New York’s reception of Roberto Alomar was the major storyline before the 1996 American League Championship Series. Despite spitting on an umpire on September 27, the Orioles’ second baseman was permitted to compete. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani recommended silent protests to his upset constituents, while vowing that spectators caught heaving projectiles would be arrested.1 The police stationed 160 extra officers inside the ballpark. Four security personnel guarded the Baltimore dugout.2

October 8 was the original date for Game One, but a tropical storm forced postponement until the next afternoon.3 Banged-up players appreciated the schedule change, as did one young Yankees fan from Old Tappan, New Jersey, whose family’s friends wound up with an extra ticket.4 Jeffrey Maier was invited to skip seventh-grade classes to attend his first playoff game.5

New York’s 21-game winner, Andy Pettitte, delighted most of the 56,495 in attendance with a perfect opening inning that ended with Alomar taking a called third strike. Alomar “was subjected to a deafening chorus of obscenities every time he came up to bat.”6

In the bottom of the frame, Orioles left fielder B.J. Surhoff lost track of a routine fly that became a leadoff double for Tim Raines. Baltimore’s Scott Erickson – the most extreme groundball pitcher among AL starters – induced groundouts from the next three hitters, but Raines advanced on the first two and scored.

Both teams capitalized on second-inning leadoff walks. After Rafael Palmeiro advanced to third on Cal Ripken’s one-out double, the Orioles’ Eddie Murray drove him home with a groundout. But the Yankees regained the advantage with an unearned run in their half. Alomar, a perennial Gold Glover, misplayed Paul O’Neill’s chopper to put two aboard.  Baltimore then failed to convert two potential double plays. First, Ripken’s relay pulled Palmeiro’s foot off first base. With runners at the corners, New York went ahead, 2-1, when Jim Leyritz’s shot toward third baseman Todd Zeile was not fielded cleanly.7

The Orioles had come back all year, though. Under .500 on July 29, they claimed the AL wild card with a 37-22 finish behind an offense that produced 257 homers – then the most in a single season.8 Brady Anderson’s 50 round-trippers were a single-season Orioles’ record, and Palmeiro’s 142 RBIs set another club mark.9

Anderson and Palmeiro both batted left-handed, though, and only one lefty had taken Pettitte deep all year. But Anderson hit one out to right in the third inning, and Palmeiro did likewise in the fourth to put the Orioles up, 3-2.

Meanwhile. Erickson found his groove, and Baltimore added another run against Pettitte in the sixth. Pettitte issued two walks around a single, and Surhoff’s sacrifice fly made it 4-2.

The Yankees couldn’t score after a pair of two-out singles in their sixth. The same thing happened in the Orioles’ seventh. By game’s end, the teams were a combined 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position, with two dozen teammates left on the basepaths.

After an Erickson walk in the bottom of the seventh, Bernie Williams’s double gave New York the tying runners in scoring position with their leading RBI man, lefty-hitting Tino Martinez, up next. Baltimore manager Davey Johnson called on southpaw Jesse Orosco, who fanned Martinez and intentionally walked Cecil Fielder to load the bases. When Yankees skipper Joe Torre sent righty-hitting Charlie Hayes up to pinch-hit, Johnson countered with his flamethrowing righty Armando Benítez. Darryl Strawberry then batted for Hayes and walked on a full count to bring the Yankees within 4-3, but Mariano Duncan fanned to end the uprising.

The Orioles made two defensive changes after going down in order in the top of the eighth. Mike Devereaux replaced Surhoff in left field and right fielder Bobby Bonilla, who had injured his shoulder the previous inning,10 yielded to Tony Tarasco, a roster addition the day before.11 The Orioles were just five outs from victory after Leyritz struck out leading off. Including playoffs, Benítez had limited right-handed hitters to a .130 average over 46 at-bats to that point in ’96.

Next, righty-swinging rookie Derek Jeter drove a 0-and-1 slider to the opposite field. Tarasco retreated to the warning track and, with his back to the nine-foot wall, he was so confident of catching the ball that he never leaped: “I was ready to close my glove, but the ball never made it to my hand. … It was like abracadabra.”12

The 12-year-old Maier had stuck his mitt into the field of play and yanked Jeter’s drive into Row A of Box 325 in Section 31.13 Tarasco immediately pointed up to where the ball had disappeared, but right-field umpire Rich Garcia signaled home run, tying the score, 4-4.

Tarasco protested vehemently. Moments later, he was joined by Anderson and Benítez. Johnson was ejected for arguing, and some spectators hurled cups and hot-dog wrappers at the angry Orioles.14 But the call was not changed. Garcia explained later, “I asked for help from the second base umpire, the first base umpire and the plate umpire. They said they couldn’t tell from where they were.”15 (Umpires were not allowed to review replays until 2008.)

Two of the next three Yankees reached safely. While Baltimore changed pitchers, fans cheered Maier and chanted “MVP!” during his live television interview with NBC’s Jim Gray. The boy described how he had lost the ball in the excitement. Arthur Rhodes retired Martinez to end the inning.

Anderson doubled in the top of the ninth against New York’s John Wetteland, but he did not advance. In the bottom of the inning, Fielder drew a leadoff walk from Baltimore’s Terry Mathews and departed for pinch-runner Andy Fox. With one away, Duncan was hit by a pitch. Torre initially sent lefty Mike Aldrete up to pinch-hit but opted for righty-hitting Joe Girardi after acting Orioles manager Andy Etchebarren brought in southpaw Randy Myers. Girardi lined out to Ripken at shortstop, and the inning ended when the “Iron Man” threw to Alomar to double up Fox.

Neither team scored in the 10th. Palmeiro reached safely for the fifth time with a leadoff single, but the Orioles stranded two against the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera. Jeter’s fourth hit – including three infield singles – started the Yankees’ half of the inning, but Myers retired two other future Hall of Famers, Raines and Wade Boggs, on a double-play grounder and popup respectively.

Baltimore nicked Rivera for a two-out single in the top of the 11th, but Alomar followed by striking out for the third time.

Columnist Buster Olney noted the next day, “The way Tarasco kept looking over at Garcia and then away, in disgust, it was as if the Orioles were waiting for the decisive blow.”16 It came in the bottom of the 11th. Myers left a 1-and-1 slider up in the strike zone, and Williams ripped it just inside the left-field foul pole for a game-ending homer.

Most of the postgame questions were about Maier’s assistance to Jeter’s homer. Johnson remarked, “I always say that one play doesn’t beat you in a ballgame, but this is about as close as you can come to one play beating you.”17 In the opposing locker room, Jeter said, “Do I feel bad? We won the game. Why should I feel bad?”18

Garcia, after viewing replays, acknowledged that he should not have ruled Jeter’s hit a homer, but he maintained, “The fan did not reach down. He reached out, which in my judgment he did not interfere with the guy catching the ball.”19 Tarasco disagreed, insisting he was “absolutely positive” that he would have snared it.20

The Orioles filed a formal protest the next day after meeting with AL President Gene Budig.21 Since umpires’ judgment calls were not disputable, Johnson knew it stood little chance of being upheld, but he was disappointed by the extra security promised to prevent such incidents.22 (One week earlier in the ALDS, another fan at Yankee Stadium had snagged a fair ball hit by the Rangers’ Juan González by reaching around the left-field foul pole. The umpires ruled it a homer.23)

The producers of Good Morning America brought Maier and his family to a Manhattan hotel overnight so that he could appear on the show in the morning.24 His father left a voice message for Tarasco, who said, “I don’t have anything against the kid. If it was me, I might have leaned out more trying to catch it.”25 The New York Daily News treated the Maiers to lunch and allowed them to sit in the newspaper’s box seats for Game Two. But the Yankees were reluctant to celebrate the boy, with a spokesman explaining, “Joe Torre said it best. He said, ‘I think it’s glorifying the wrong thing.’”26

The Orioles took Game Two to even the series, but their protest was formally denied the next day. The Yankees swept three contests in Baltimore to win the pennant, beat the Braves in the World Series, and then won three of the next four World Series. As for Jeffrey Maier, after playing college baseball at Wesleyan University, he married a Boston Red Sox fan and started a family in New England.27

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199610090.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1996/B10090NYA1996.htm

The author also watched (again) NBC’s original television broadcast of the game. John Z, YouTube posting, June 17, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q450ly1Lchg&t=5049s (last accessed December 3, 2022).

Photo credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 Clifford J. Levy, “Giuliani Is Urging Fans to Give Alomar the Silent Treatment,” New York Times, October 9, 1996: 13.

2 Dave Anderson, “From Alomar to a Kid, to ‘Ber-Nie,’” New York Times, October 10, 1996: 17.

3 Murray Chass, “Rain Gives Yankees an Extra Day Game,” New York Times, October 9, 1996: A1.

4 Jeffrey Maier, “How Catching a Derek Jeter ‘Home Run’ Changed My Life Forever,” Bleacher Report, April 6, 2014, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2017536-how-catching-a-derek-jeter-home-run-changed-my-life-forever (last accessed December 3, 2022).

5 George Vecsey, “A 12-Year-Old Legend Is Born in Right Field,” New York Times, October 10, 1996: 17.

6 Peter Schmuck, “Yanks Catch a Break,” Baltimore Sun, October 10, 1996: 1A.

7 Mark Maske, “Fan Runs Interference for Yankees in Game 1,” Washington Post, October 10, 1996: B1.

8 The Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians in the American League Division Series, three games to one.

9 In 1922, when the franchise was the St. Louis Browns, Ken Williams collected 155 RBIs. In 2004 Miguel Tejada established a new Baltimore record with 150 RBIs. Chris Davis homered 53 times in 2013 to surpass Anderson’s total.

10 Murray Chass, “‘Magic Trick’ Causes Orioles to Disappear,” New York Times, October 10, 1996: 17.

11 Jason Lancanfora, “Alexander Is Dropped, Tarasco Added to Roster as Insurance for Surhoff,” Baltimore Sun, October 9, 1996: 2E.

12 Schmuck.

13 Vecsey, “A 12-Year-Old Legend Is Born in Right Field.”

14 Buster Olney, “Fan Has Hand in Yanks’ Win,” Baltimore Sun, October 10, 1996: 1E.

15 John Eisenberg, “Everyone Saw the Kid but One Man Who Counted,” Baltimore Sun, October 10, 1996: 1E.

16 Olney.

17 Schmuck.

18 Roch Eric Kubatko, “To Delight of Yankees, 12-Year-Old Plays Catch,” Baltimore Sun, October 10, 1996: 6E.

19 Chass, “‘Magic Trick’ Causes Orioles to Disappear.”

20 Olney.

21 Section 3:16 of the Official Baseball Rules stipulate that a batter should be ruled out if fan interference prevents a fielder from catching a ball. Although Garcia opined that the ball Jeter hit would not have been caught by Tarasco, his admission that his home run ruling was incorrect prompted the Orioles to protest on the basis of Rule 3:11, which said an umpire’s decision could be reversed “should he be convinced that it is in violation of one of the rules.” Had Garcia ruled that interference occurred, but Tarasco would not have made the catch (i.e., that the ball would have hit the top of the wall), home-plate umpire Larry Barnett would have decided how many bases to award Jeter. Murray Chass, “Orioles File Protest on Game 1, Citing Possible Loophole,” New York Times, October 11, 1996: 11.

22 Schmuck.

23 “A Fan Gets a Piece of the Action as González Hits Bleachers Again,” New York Times, October 3, 1996: 12.

24 Bruce Weber, “Boy Who Saved the Yankees Becomes a Man About Town,” New York Times, October 11, 1996: A11.

25  Ken Rosenthal, “Win, Protest Help Sweep Away Sting of Bad Call,” Baltimore Sun, October 11, 1996: 1E.

26 Weber.

27 Maier.