ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: LARRY McSHANE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A 12-YEAR-OLD'S eighth-inning grab of a fly ball that may have cost the Orioles a game has earned him celebrity - and notoriety.
Yankee fans are toasting him. Orioles fans want to wring his little neck.
The most crucial glovework in the opening game of the American League championship series became a tale of two cities Thursday: New York bestowed instant celebrity on 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier, the fan whose quick glove boosted his beloved Bronx Bombers to a victory; Baltimore cried larceny.
Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke opened his weekly news conference Thursday by saying the stolen catch showed New York doesn't have a true zero-tolerance policy toward crime.
``We were robbed and they saw it, and nobody did anything about it,'' Schmoke said.
WBAL radio's talk show phone lines were inundated with callers outraged about the kid and about right field umpire Rich Garcia's failure to call interference. Another station urged listeners to send in old eyeglasses for Garcia.
In New York, callers to WFAN's all-sports radio shows somehow were less irate.
Jeffrey's eighth-inning lean-and-grab of a Derek Jeter homer that looked like it could be caught landed him on ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' A deli in his hometown, Old Tappan, N.J., ran a Jeff Maier lunch special. (It includes a turkey sandwich.) And the pint-size star received an ovation inside The All-Star Cafe at Times Square.
The Little Leaguer, who played hooky from school to meet the press Thursday, was quick to play down his nationally televised (and endlessly replayed) grab of a fly ball that had seemed destined to die in the glove of Orioles right fielder Tony Tarasco.
``I'm not as famous as the Yankees,'' Jeffrey said. ``The players go out there every day. The Yankees deserve the credit.''
Jeffrey also had an answer for those who accuse him of changing the outcome of the game: ``They don't understand. If they were me, a 12-year-old kid at a New York Yankees playoff game, they would try and catch the ball, too.''
After lunch - paid for by the Daily News, which also served up eight tickets to Game Two and a ride to Yankee Stadium - Jeffrey turned down $1,000 for an afternoon appearance on ``Geraldo'' to go to the 3 p.m. game instead.
``Go catch another one today!'' shouted a cafe patron, unaware that Jeff's seats were in foul territory, behind the Yankee dugout.
Not everyone in the New York area was gloating.
``To think that this kid is a hero and to idolize him is absurd,'' said Greg Nalbandian, a real estate appraiser in the kid's hometown. ``He interfered with a play, and it's a playoff game.''
``The kid should be embarrassed, not proud, to go on TV,'' said Dave Bernroth, a house painter from Ringwood, N.J.
Baltimore Sun sports columnist Ken Rosenthal referred to the kid in print as ``the little miscreant,'' while Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening jokingly suggested pressing theft charges.
And lest there be a repeat in the ballpark, at least a half-dozen security guards were posted where the boy caught the ball.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Jeffrey Maier holds up a New York Post before theby CNBsecond game of the American League championship series Thursday.
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