Leyritz Endures Stupid Hero Tricks

To the victor goes the spoils, and in this case, that meant an appearance on Thursday night’s “Late Show with David Letterman” for Yankee catcher Jim Leyritz, whose three-run homer in the eighth inning of Game 4 Wednesday night tied the score in a game New York eventually won, 8-6.

Leyritz was interviewed before Game 5 by “Late Night” correspondent Larry “Bud” Melman, the aging straight man who asked off-the-wall questions, such as:

“As a catcher, do you enjoy squatting?”

“Does George Steinbrenner ever join you in the shower?”

To which Leyritz replied, “No, that’s off limits.”

Leyritz got a congratulatory hug from Melman before being whisked away to the media interview room, where he said his dramatic homer hadn’t really changed his life . . . yet.

“If we win the series, maybe I’ll feel different,” said Leyritz, whose two-run homer in the 15th inning gave the Yankees a 7-5 win over Seattle in Game 2 of the 1995 division series. “But I hit a big home run last year and we didn’t finish off [the Mariners], so I know how that feels.”

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He hasn’t experienced a Rich Garcia moment, but umpire Tim Welke has been at the center of controversy in the World Series.

Players from both teams questioned Welke’s strike zone in Game 3, and Brave Manager Bobby Cox fumed about Welke’s inability to get out of right fielder Jermaine Dye’s way on Derek Jeter’s sixth-inning fly ball, which dropped in foul territory in Game 4.

First baseman Fred McGriff and second baseman Mark Lemke pursued the popup, and Welke remained stationary on the right-field line. Dye raced in behind Welke, nearly ran into the umpire, then slipped and fell as the ball dropped. Jeter then singled to start a three-run rally.

“Dye hit Welke in the back going after that ball,” Cox said. “Maybe it was his first time [umpiring] down the line, but God Almighty, that was a big out. I guess he didn’t think another guy was coming in behind him, but there were three guys converging on that ball.”

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Cox had a rough night himself Wednesday, as two key decisions--replacing highly effective relief pitcher Mike Bielecki with closer Mark Wohlers to start the eighth inning and walking Bernie Williams with runners on first and second in the 10th--backfired.

Wohlers gave up Leyritz’s game-tying homer, and Wade Boggs followed the intentional walk to Williams with a bases-loaded walk against Steve Avery that scored the winning run.

“Those were absolutely the correct moves,” Cox said. “There’s so many things you can second-guess in this game. . . . I’ve walked guys with first base occupied before. I thought Avery blindfolded could throw strikes, but it just didn’t happen.”

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Wednesday was a move-a-minute kind of night for Yankee Manager Joe Torre, who used 15 position players and seven pitchers in Game 4 and admitted that “things got crazy there for a while.” His 65-year-old, highly excitable bench coach, Don Zimmer, didn’t exactly help.

“He kept asking me, ‘Who do we have left?’ ” Torre said. “He drove me nuts. He asked, ‘When is the pitcher hitting?’ I told him, ‘Ninth, where he’s been hitting all game.’ Then I’d talk about horse racing or something to get him off the subject.”