Fluke Play Puts the Kid in a League of His Own

He’s a hero. He’s a meddler. He’s an average 12-year-old who did what any kid--young or old--would do.

The day after Jeffrey Maier grabbed a ball from the right-field stands that resulted in a game-tying home run for his beloved Yankees in the first game of the American League championship series, the sports world was riveted on the controversial event.

In just 24 hours, it went from fluke play to morality play in a cloud of media hype.

“I went to the fence and I stuck out my glove,” Maier said Thursday when asked if he had done the right thing. “I’m a big Yankee fan and I’m glad to help the Yankees in any way I can.”

“I am sure there is a morality play at work here,” said Gregory MacLean, his Little League coach. “I don’t believe a fan should determine the outcome of a game in any sport. But how do you tell a 12-year-old with a ball coming at him 100 miles an hour not to reach out and grab it?”

Easy. Just ask anybody in Baltimore.

“We were robbed and they saw it and nobody did anything about it,” said Baltimore’s Mayor Kurt Schmoke.

Maier, by scooping the fly ball away from Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco, gave Yankee Derek Jeter a home run in the eighth inning. Umpire Rich Garcia ruled the play a home run, giving the Yankees the tie.

They won the game in the 11th inning.

In the ensuing uproar, Maier enjoyed the dream of every youngster who ever sat in the stands with his baseball glove hoping.

He was back at Yankee Stadium, the guest of the New York Daily News, which labeled him “Kid Glove” on its front page and chauffeured him to the Bronx in a limousine.

The rival tabloid New York Post weighed in with “Angel in the Outfield” on its front page.

“I’m not a real celebrity,” insisted Maier.

But the pivotal moment of the game produced intense debate over the propriety of the young fan’s interference.

“I just shouted out, ‘I don’t believe this!’ ” said Tori Leonard, press secretary to Maryland’s Gov. Parris N. Glendening, when she heard on her car radio what Maier had done.

In what he labeled a tongue-in-cheek statement, Glendening added:

“Like all Marylanders, I am outraged by the unfortunate events that occurred in the eighth inning of yesterday’s game between the Orioles and the Yankees. As a result, I have conferred with the Maryland attorney general’s office and I am strongly urging that minor theft charges be brought against the 12-year-old boy who clearly stole the baseball in midair.”

New York’s Gov. George Pataki viewed things differently.

“A 12-year-old kid doesn’t pre-plan what’s happening when a fly ball is coming his way. . . . You want to catch the ball,” Pataki said.

New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, waxed philosophic.

“You should not interfere with the play. . . . Then again, this is a 12-year-old,” the mayor said. “It is not the first time a fan has done that. It happens all the time. We try to discourage fans from doing it but it becomes part of the game. Baseball is a game of breaks, good calls, bad calls, in between calls.”

In his hometown of Old Tappan, N.J., Maier was an instant celebrity.

Throngs of reporters descended on his house only to find that he and his parents were in Manhattan making the rounds of television shows.

A local delicatessen in Old Tappan paid tribute, naming a meal after the young fan.

“It’s a turkey sandwich, a bottle with Cherry Coke and a bag of pretzels,” said Christopher Crotti, a worker in the deli. “He gets that every day for lunch. He’s a good kid. His mom comes in here all the time.”

Maier rejected “Geraldo,” but appeared on “Good Morning America,” “Rosie O’Donnell” and “Live, With Regis and Kathie Lee.” He lunched with his family at Manhattan’s All-Star Cafe, where he received a standing ovation.

Only last weekend, MacLean said, Maier celebrated his bar mitzvah.

“Most kids get a fountain pen at their bar mitzvah,” said the coach. “He got ‘Good Morning America.’ ”

“They don’t understand,” Maier said patiently of his critics. “If they were me, a 12-year-old kid at a New York Yankees playoff game, they would try to catch the ball too.”

The ball skidded out of Maier’s glove and into the hands of another fan, who said he might give it up if the price was right.

“I got to coach him a little more,” MacLean said of the muffed catch. “But he is a superb ballplayer. In our town, he is probably the best baseball player in the league we play.”

The debate--the vindication and the vitriol--spread quickly from the streets of Baltimore and New York to the Internet, where baseball lovers registered strong opinions.

“He’s made a mockery of baseball and made Yankee fans look like a bunch of idiots,” said Ron Weber.

“I sincerely think New York should write this Jeff Maier kid into their lineup tomorrow,” countered M. Hayman, on the Net.

But if there was no joy in Baltimore, the prevailing mood in New York was summed up by Bernard Thompson, a street vendor selling ties and sweaters on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.

“Is that kid the happiest kid in New York today, or what? Wow! I mean this is perfect. He’s a Little Leaguer. He came to the park with a glove and here comes the ball right at him. On top of that, he helped the Yankees win a ballgame. Man, nothing in his life, for the rest of his life, is going to compare with that moment.”

Added Daniel E. Cohen, a New York marketing consultant:

“Now it’s Mantle, Maris and Maier.”

Times staff writers Ross Newhan and Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this story.

* CATCHING THE SPOTLIGHT: A young Yankee fan stretched his 15 minutes of fame. C4