Bird fans, I can understand why you wouldn't want him playing for the O's, but the Yanks are interested, too. How will you feel if he ends up with the Yanks and gets several more chances to stick it to you every year? Sign him and shuffle him around the minors for as long as you can. When you can't hold him there any longer, trade him to an NL organization.
That Jeffrey Maier still gets torched for that incident is a shame for so many reasons: 1) As has been stated, anybody in Maier's shoes -- in your team's home park with your team at bat -- would have gone for the ball. Anyone. Not just 12 year olds, but especially 12 year olds. This play is 0% Maier's fault and 100% Richie Garcia's fault for blowing the call. 2) The play resulted in one run (tying Game 1 in the eighth inning) in one game of a seven game series. The Orioles won the very next day at Yankee Stadium, then blew the next three in Baltimore. Roughly 200 miles away from Jeffrey Maier. Maybe if Cal Ripken showed up (.250, 0 RBI's) this wouldn't be such a hot point. 3) It's easy to forget that the '96 Yankees -- nearly 20 years removed from their last championship and virtually superstar-less -- were a very likeable team, a better team than the Orioles all-around, and at the time the Maier thing played like the kind of moment that defines a team of destiny. What the Yankees have built in the 10 years since has soured history's treatment of that team. They were likeable underdogs. 4) It bears repeating -- it was 10 years ago. Move on, already. Sign Maier. Or don't. But don't make more of it than it is -- prospect, good hit, good glove, went to a game once. "I could still be in Baltimore if that didn't happen," said Davey Johnson. Davey, nobody has hired you to manage their club for six years. If you had a baker's dozen Maier plays in your favor that series, it still wouldn't mask the fact that you are one awful, awful manager. You're a living testament to how good the mid-80's Mets really were.
Damn, BallPeen, you might just make Davey cry. Good call.
