Now, Webster Is Out of Words

Nice fellow, Lenny Webster. Husband and father. Active in the community. Pretty good catcher. Fair hitter. Part-timer mostly during eight years of bouncing around: Minnesota, Montreal, Philadelphia, now the Baltimore Orioles.

Never would have dreamed he’d be at the center of something like this.

“Bizarre,” is the way he put it Sunday night. “All I can say, man, is that it’s very bizarre.”

Game 4 of the American League’s championship series was played under the night lights at Jacobs Field, but it seemed right out of the twilight zone that was the 12 madcap innings of Game 3.

At least, the fifth inning did.

That was the inning in which a changeup thrown by Arthur Rhodes with the bases loaded hit short and bounced 15 away from Webster, and two runs scored, or as Baltimore Manager Davey Johnson said later:

“I’ve seen some strange things happen, but that’s the first time I’ve ever seen two runs score on a wild pitch. Someone is messing with fate right now.”

Two runs in a game the Orioles lost to the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, only a day after fate had intervened in the 12th inning of a 2-1 loss to the Indians, who scored the winning run on a failed and controversial squeeze play on which Webster contended that Omar Vizquel had fouled the bunt attempt. Umpire John Hirschbeck ruled otherwise, however, and Marquis Grissom, racing from third on the squeeze, scored the decisive run as the pitch caromed off Webster’s mitt.

Two runs on a wild pitch and another on failed fundamentals--three runs without a batter touching the ball--and now the Indians lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1, and Lenny Webster and his teammates could be eliminated tonight.

No wonder they are speculating about fate and no wonder a roaring crowd of 45,081 was on its feet in the sixth inning Sunday night, one inning after that wild pitch, to give Webster a standing ovation when he came to the plate.

“If they were knowledgeable baseball fans they’d know that none of this was my fault,” Webster said at his locker later.

He also recognized it for what it was, turning to Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. and saying, “You guys should trade for me. They love me here.”

Well, it’s certainly becoming an ongoing affair, what with the strange events of Saturday followed by the almost stranger events of Sunday and the 32-year-old Webster getting headlines of a bigger, bolder nature than he has ever received before.

“Like wow,” he said, shaking his head. “I mean, it’s baseball and it’s a funny game. You have to keep it in perspective. You have to maintain a sense of humor.

“If I really thought this was my fault, if I really came away worried about it, I’d get a blade and cut my wrists, but I’m out there giving 100% and doing all I can on those plays and I’m sleeping well at night.”

Of course, the Indians had just put the Orioles to bed and Webster was still a long way from shutting his eyes and hoping it all went away.

There was one out and Cleveland had David Justice on third, Alomar on second, Brian Giles on first and Grissom at the plate when Rhodes bounced that changeup.

Webster got his body in front of it but couldn’t control it. He pounced after it, flipping the ball back to Rhodes covering the plate as Justice slid in.

“From where I was it looked like Arthur caught the ball and we had the out,” Webster said.

Instead, the flip hit Justice and caromed away again, and Webster said: “We were stuck in a hard spot. I thought Arthur would go after it, which meant I’d have to get back and cover the plate, but Justice was holding Arthur down.”

As Justice and Rhodes untangled, Alomar never stopped running from second and scored an instant later as Justice collided with Webster as he scrambled away from the plate and Rhodes finally retrieved the ball to no avail. Webster and the Orioles appealed to umpire Durwood Merrill that Justice had held the pitcher, permitting Alomar to score, but Merrill ruled otherwise.

“I’m not going to start any controversy,” Webster said. “I guess you’d have to say it was a good play on Justice’s part and good hustle on Alomar’s part.

“Have I ever seen two runners score on a wild pitch? You’re kidding, of course.”

Actually, the Indians had done it before. Kenny Lofton and Ruben Amaro scored on a Randy Johnson wild pitch in Game 6 of the 1995 AL championship series with the Seattle Mariners. But Cleveland General Manager John Hart shook his head as he reflected on the victories of Saturday and Sunday and said:

“Unbelievable. You couldn’t have drawn it up. Has to rip your heart out.”

He referred to the impact on the Orioles, who went wire to wire to win the East, went up 2-0 en route to beating the Mariners in the division series but now face elimination by a team that won 11 fewer games during the regular season.

“That means nothing now,” first baseman Rafael Palmeiro said. “All the calls, all the breaks, are going the other way, but we have to get past that.

“I mean, it’s amazing to lose two games like that but you can’t blame it on those plays. We had our chances to put them away and didn’t.”

Said Oriole Manager Johnson of the 1-3 deficit: “We have a ways to go yet. I’ve been two runs down and down to my last strike and won the game. It’s not over. I’ve seen stranger things happen.”

Lenny Webster hasn’t.