Exclusive | Jeff Maier got to relive his fan interference drama all over again 28 years later
LOS ANGELES — Gleyber Torres smoked a ninth-inning pitch deep into left-center, where a Dodgers fan proved overeager Friday night.He lowered his glove into the field of play, catching a ball that would have hit the wall and bringing it over the fence. Everyone around baseball reached for the same name — a name that is not quite right. “‘Jeff’ has been historically what folks have called me my whole life,” Jeff Maier said over the phone Saturday from New Hampshire, where he was shuttling his children around on a busy weekend.
“‘Jeffrey’ is reserved for being 12 years old and surrounded by media answering questions awkwardly in the right field stands, or if my mom was particularly displeased about homework or grades.” These days, Jeff Maier is a 40-year-old father of three who has worked in technology sales for years and now is employed with Prompt Security, which focuses on artificial intelligence security. He is also a diehard Yankees fan who was watching the eventual 6-3, 10-inning loss in Game 1 of the World Series with the volume off, avoiding the inevitable comparisons that would pop up.Usually, he switches his phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode at 8:30 p.m., but Friday night he had some messages to return.
About 30 or 40 texts poured in, he said, friends and family needling him and asking if he had made the trip to Dodger Stadium to patrol the bleachers and snatch long drives. Those days — back on Oct.9, 1996, in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS between the Yankees and Orioles — Jeffrey Maier was a preteen who watched Derek Jeter send an opposite-field drive into the right field corner at the old Yankee Stadium.
Maier scrambled toward the ball, crept his glove down the wall and intercepted a fly ball that seemed destined for the glove of Tony Tarasco. Tarasco protested and pointed upward, but right field umpire Rich Garcia signaled a home run rather than fan interference.The moment gave rise both to Jeter’s October legend and the dyna...