Angel Ballboy Saves Evidence Against Niekro

To those who thought l’affaire Niekro began and ended with scuffed-up baseballs, we bring you the tale of Al Newman and the roughed-up ballboy.

Newman, a utility infielder with the Minnesota Twins, allegedly accosted an Angel ballboy entrusted with the six baseballs removed from Monday night’s game after the ejection of Twins’ pitcher Joe Niekro.

According to the ballboy, Jeff Parker, 17, Newman approached him in a corridor behind the teams’ clubhouses, demanded to see the balls and then “forcibly tried to take the balls away from me.”

“I was going to the umpires’ room to lock the balls up,” Parker said. “I was halfway there when (Newman) came up to me and said ‘Come here, let me see those balls.’

“I said no and he tried to grab the bag. . . . He sort of leaned on me and forced me to the ground. I was on my knees when he left me.”

Parker said Newman relented only when another Twin player walked out of the visitors’ clubhouse and broke things up.

“I think he would have gotten them from me if it wasn’t for another player who was down there,” Parker said. “He told (Newman), ‘Hey, leave him alone.’

“Then, he made one last grab for the balls. I’m surprised the bag didn’t break.”

Parker couldn’t identify the other player.

After the incident, Parker said he gave the balls to Leonard Garcia, the Angel equipment manager, who locked them in the Angels’ team room. The balls, allegedly defaced by Niekro, were shipped today to the office of American League President Bobby Brown. Brown will examine the balls, the videotape, and the emery board and sandpaper confiscated from Niekro before making a ruling on the matter.

So how did Albert D. Newman explain his actions?

“I’m not denying that I saw him and that I asked him for the balls,” Newman said. “But I am damn sure denying that I wrestled him to the ground. I just asked to see the balls and he said no.

“He’s a 100-pound kid. I’m going to try and bury him, right?”

Tom Kelly, the Twins manager, called it “a misunderstanding.”

Said Kelly: “One of my players asked to see the baseballs from the young lad. I guess the boy was upset. He was doing his job, he was doing what he was told to do, and he got detained. What happened besides that is just speculation.”

Kelly scoffed at the idea of Newman attempting to take the baseballs from Parker.

“What’s he gonna do, make a switch and no one’s gonna notice?” Kelly said. “That’s kind of far-fetched. A grown man, a professional player is going to knock a kid down? I find that hard to believe.

“(Newman) just wanted to look at them, just like anybody else. Wouldn’t you want to see those balls? I don’t see why everyone’s making a big deal out of it.”

Kelly, however, did place a phone call Tuesday to Parker’s sister, who works in stadium operations at Anaheim Stadium, and apologized to her.

“I wanted to apologize if there was any misunderstanding,” Kelly said. “I see where the boy is going on the (Angels’) next road trip and that he’s coming to Minneapolis. I didn’t want him to feel as though he’s unwelcome.”

Parker said that after he returned to his regular seat on the top step of the Angel dugout Monday night, he looked into the Twins’ dugout and saw Newman, who was gesturing toward him.

“He was pointing and smiling, like it was all a joke,” Parker said. “I thought he was serious. I took it seriously. I was really shaken up.”

The Angels have reportedly filed a complaint to the league office, although Angel General Manager Mike Port refused comment on the matter.

Said Parker: “Mike Port took care of everything.”

So now, Brown has two cases to review. He is expected to make a ruling on Niekro today. To be determined: Length of suspension and/or a possible fine.

“We’re just waiting to hear,” said Kelly, who has not pleaded innocence on behalf of his pitcher. Monday, Kelly said he thought the umpires “showed a lot of class and handled the job well.”

Tuesday, he added that, “the umpires simply found material in his pocket that (is) illegal to bring onto the field and threw him out of the game. That’s the rule.”

Kelly was sorry to see emery boards and sandpaper swatches get more attention than the 11-3 victory his team eventually scored over the Angels.

“It took attention away from the game, but this is something different, I guess,” he said. “We’ve come here to play baseball and we’d like to get back to doing that.”

A distraction? Kelly said he wouldn’t quite go that far.

“We scored 11 runs last night,” Kelly said. “Maybe it woke us up.”