WHAT IF…Rich Garcia had called fan interference?
Posted by Andy on September 11, 2010
WHAT IF is a series where we pose a question and speculate on how history might be different or the future might turn out. Please add your own comments below.
What if it Rich Garcia had called fan interference on Jeffrey Maier, when he prevented Tony Tarasco from catching Derek Jeter's fly ball during Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS?
There are lots of ways of looking at this one.
First of all, Maier probably gets beat up at some point.
The Yankees probably lose that game, and perhaps lose the ALCS thanks to losing Game 1 at home.
Bernie Williams never hits the game-winning homer in the 11th inning.
What else could this have meant for the Yankees, Orioles, or individuals from that team?
September 11th, 2010 at 8:14 am
The Orioles won one game in that series... Unless you believe very strongly in momentum, it's hard to believe anything would change. As for individuals, it's not like Bernie is an Aaron Boone-type whose legacy rests on one homerun.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:26 am
You're up early this morning, Andy.
Memory-challenged people like me, need lots of reminding. I'm assuming that the Maier/Garcia incident occurred during Jeter's bottom-of-the-eighth at bat, when he subsequently homered?
Based on the number of posts in the last "What if..." discussion, I'm looking forward to how much detail people will recall about the game and to their creativity in projecting the consequences into future scenarios.
I guess if interference had been called it would have been the witness protection program for Mr. Maier.
As an aside, until reading Andy's discussion starter here, I had forotten about how many controversial calls I remember Garcia being involved in over his career, at least for the team I follow. Did Garcia ever change a call during his career or ever consult with his fellow umps?
So my "what if....." is what if it been a less arrogant umpire than Garcia who had reversed the call, Yanks go on to lose and then Yankees nation wants their pound of flesh?
September 11th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Even if it had been called interference, Jeter still would've been the tying run at second base with only one out. I don't think it's anywhere close to a lock that the Orioles would have won that game, let alone the series. The Yankees had a better team.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Down 1-0 in the series and with Mariano Rivera not having pitched the 10th and 11th the night before, Joe Torre doesn't even consider giving Jeff Nelson the ball with the game tied in the 7th inning of game 2. Mo doesn't give up the 2 run HR to Palmeiro and Cecil Fielder's RBI single in the bottom of the 7th puts the Yankees up 3-2. Mariano gets out of the 8th unscathed and hands the ball to John Wetteland who picks up the save. The series still goes to Baltimore 1-1 and the Yankees take all 3 at Camden Yards.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Sure Scott, but the game they won was Game 2 (also at Yankee Stadium).
Yankee fans respond to the call by tossing all types of unimaginable trash on the field, stopping only when Bob Sheppard reminds them that the game could be forfeited.
Braves cruise past Baltimore in the Series - their second straight title. Yankees replace Torre with Gene Lamont and then break the bank for Albert Belle.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Up early? I have a young child; I've been up for hours. Bedside, I wrote this post a week ago.
I though Garcia has the option of calling Jeter out if he felt the ball would have been caught?
September 11th, 2010 at 8:38 am
I still would have beat up that kid. He needed a beat down. 🙂
September 11th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Does anyone know where a video of the play is archived? I'd like to watch it. Thx.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Wouldn't TT have caught the ball if Maier had not interfered? I don't think Jeter would be at 2nd.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Assuming the Yankees lose the game following the fan interference call, we are treated to one of the all-time great George Steinbrenner verbal explosions. The stress on his heart from this event causes him to pass a couple years earlier, in a year where there is an Estate Tax, forcing his sons to sell the team.
(please excuse the somewhat morbid nature of my post and please please please do not turn this into a discussion of the merits of various tax policies)
September 11th, 2010 at 10:43 am
@9 ... you're assuming there is no fan interference. Andy is alluding to Maier reaching over and catching the ball, but the ump calling fan interference.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:45 am
@10
Not in bad taste at all, Evan. I know it is a tongue-in-cheek post.
And no politics on this sad 9th anniversary for all of you, my respected American neighbours!
September 11th, 2010 at 10:50 am
The more interesting what-if to me (even tho it didn't involve a horrid umpire call) was the Leyritz bomb off of Mark Wohlers in the 8th inning of game 4. Braves win that game and they are up 3-1, and Wohlers might not have become absolute dogmeat in the aftermath; the Braves themselves don't get stuck with the "underachiever" label despite the long string of division titles. Of course if the Tarasco interference call is upheld, none of that might have happened...
September 11th, 2010 at 11:38 am
This argument is absolutely ridiculous. After the Orioles won Game 2, the series was tied going into Baltimore, where the Yanks SWEPT the Orioles three straight to win the pennant.
Not only that, the Yankees won EVERY game played in Baltimore in that 1996 season. EVERY ONE.
No one ever writes or reports that. They act as if the Maier incident happened in Game 7 instead of Game 1.
The Orioles had their chances. Tied with three at your place and lose all three? No excuses.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:59 am
The Yankees, who dominated the Orioles all season long, shake it off and win in six games instead of five. The rest of nation, which hardly ranks Bernie Williams' homer as one of the sport's most memorable moments, is spared eight years of the then still-influential New York media trying to persuade the rest of us that this guy is a combination of Willie Mays and Micky Mantle.
(Bernie was very good player, maybe even a Hall of Famer, and seems like a decent guy. He didn't ask for his hometown media's adulation. Out here in the hinterlands ... we just got a little tired of it.)
I think Leyritz's homer is the much bigger what-if.
September 11th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Tom - I agree, the Yankees win it in 6 instead of 5. I lived near Baltimore at the time, grew up an Orioles fan, and remember the Jeffery Maier incident with great hatred. At the time, I would have definitely said that the Orioles would have won the series and gone on to win the World Series if fan interference was correctly called. But, looking back at it, I don't see the Orioles winning any more games than games 1 and 2 in the series. I was at game 4 in Baltimore, which the Orioles lost 8 - 4, they just didn't play good at any of the games in Baltimore.
September 11th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Got to agree with the consensus in here. Even if the Yankees lose the game, they still win the playoff series and advance.
I think the effect on the Orioles franchise of the call was greater than on the Yankees. The O's lose again to Cleveland in the ALCS the following year, doubt themselves, and haven't finished above 0.500 since.
Everybody in the AL East has an inferiority complex when measured against the Yankees, even this year's Rays. Money intimidates...
September 11th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
The Yanks didn't lose ANY road games that postseason, so I like their odds. Of course, I missed the homer, as I was working in the dorm cafeteria. I ran downstairs, figuring the game (if it was running late) would still be on in the lounge. Sure enough, I get down just in time for one pitch, the game-ending homer.
I agree, the Leyritz homer was a bigger what-if. At the time, I thought the big what-if might end up being Torre's decision to let Pettitte bat in the top of the ninth of Game 5. But he and Wetteland made it hold up.
September 11th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
If I remember the play, didnt Maier catch the ball high enough up off the wall that Tarasco wouldnt have a shot to catch it anyway? It would have maybe bounced off the wall
September 11th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Here's a link to a video mlb did on it a while back.
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=3345251
I think without Maier it is a long-forgotten F-9.
September 11th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
@8 @20
Thanks, Tom. I'm going to look at the infamous fan catch" right after posting this.
September 11th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Wow, Tony Tarasco never even jumped at the fence b/c he was so sure he had the ball. The arrogance and smirk of the older Jeffrey Maier on the video is really annoying.
It's like the Yankees have a divine right to have things go their way. Now what about Cubs' fans that interfere with balls......
Sorry....
September 11th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Here is an interview Garcia gave to an officiating site in which he said after seeing the replays he still didn't think Tarasco would have caught it, that the ball would have hit the wall.
http://www.referee.com/sampleArticles/2001/SampleArticle0101/interviews/garcia/garciatext.html
I don't think so. But for those of you who do, well, you have Garcia on your side. (Is that comforting?)
If the ball does the hit off the wall and Tarasco's back is against the wall, I think you are looking at a triple for young Jeter.
September 11th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I think that really nothing would have changed and fans would have quit talking about sometime Around the end of game 6
September 11th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
The ridiculous thing is that the ump, the EXTRA ump mind you since it's the playoffs, could call that incorrectly. That's just awful.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Yankees fans kill a 12-year-old. He never goes on Leno. The world looks the other way.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Seriously speaking, I wonder if there would have been a change in Jeter's "legacy". What always bothered me about that play (and I lived in NY at the time) was that Yankee fans seemed to treat it as a legit play, as opposed to saying, "Ya know what, it was a shit call, but so be it." That's all I looked for for them, but they acted as if it was the right play and call because, ya know, the Yanks are SUPPOSED to win, right?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
The ball was going to be caught. No question about it, aside from the 0.01% chance Tarasco just drops it. He's standing right under it. Shame on Garcia for not admitting he made a mistake.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:50 am
I can't believe no one has brought up Fred McGriff yet. He was having a great year--34 HR--and almost certainly would have hit 7 more. If this happens, he finally gets a 40-HR season, ends his career with 500, and maybe makes it to Cooperstown. How come no one is talking about Fred McGriff???
September 12th, 2010 at 9:21 am
@29
BSK, my point exactly in last part of #22. It's why the baseball world loves to hate the Yankees.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Last post is in response to #27, not #29. Too quick on the submit key!
September 12th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Jonathan, I approve of that becoming a repeating meme on this blog.
September 12th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Considering what we now know about those Yankee teams, the Orioles were going to lose no matter what. Thankfully Jeter's HR stood. It makes for more interesting baseball history.
September 12th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
It was an unfortunate missed call. What should have happened was to all an out for fan interference. The ushers should have removed that punk kid, called the police, who would have taken him to juvenile hall. Then they should have called his parents to take him home. Also his parents should have been fined as an example of how to control an unruly.
Because I have a grown son, I feel I know what I am talking about.
September 12th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I couldn't make myself read the entire Rich Garcia interview, or even watch the entire video from #20. I was at the game, in right field (not the outfield, but foul territory) and couldn't see the top of the wall. But as soon as TT didn't catch the ball, he came running forward onto the field and I said to my friends I was sitting with, that it had to be fan interference by the way TT reacted. That Garcia, who could see the whole play missed it was unbelievable. Then he ejects Davey Johnson? I think the Yanks will the playoff anyway, but it was a terrible call. I hate instant replay, but with all those umpires and they still get that one wrong, it really makes the case for having instant replay.
September 12th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
@36
Awesome that you were in the park that night.
"That Garcia, who could see the whole play missed it was unbelievable. Then he ejects Davey Johnson?"
I think Garcia always had a pretty short fuse. If you read the interview Tom linked in #23, Garcia came a little cleaner about the call.
In terms of a what if..., Denkinger's 1985 blown call was far more impactful. The Royals haven't had a sniff of post-season since, due to the Denkinger curse. (lol)
I was wondering when some one would mention instant replay in here....
September 12th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
The ALCS goes back to New York after five now. Calling the four game difference in record evidence of superiority and the margin of such true, you probably have about a one-in-five chance of the series result going the other way.
Hey, I'm a devoted O's fan, and my second-favorite team is whoever is playing the Yankees, but at this point, the Orioles need two games. In New York. Random chance says one-in-four, even strength, neutral park.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Ripken possibly gets to be part of one more postseason series win and one more World Series. The ranks of those who don't think he is a Hall-of-Fame quality player are slightly reduced as a result of this.
September 13th, 2010 at 5:17 am
The Yanks still win the series...likely in 6 games. Everyone talks about Game 1 and the Maier play but in my opinion the turning point of the series was the 8th inning of Game 3. Nobody ever talks about this. Baltimore had a 2-1 lead, 2 outs in the Top of the 8th and Mussina was rolling. Looked like the O's were on their way to taking a 2-1 series lead.
What happened? Jeter doubled, Bernie Williams singled him home to tie it at 2. Tino Martinez doubled and Bernie held at 3rd. Todd Zeile then tried to fake a relay throw back to 2nd and the ball slipped out of his hand and bounced away from him....allowing Williams to score from 3rd to give the Yanks the lead. Very next batter was Cecil Fielder and he promptly took Mussina deep to make it 5-2 Yanks.
The Yanks basically won the series in that sequence of four batters. Baltimore never had a chance after that as the Yanks won Games 4 and 5 rather easily.
September 13th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
As for hating the kid, I think this differs from the Bartman game in that the fan was trying to help his team, not hurt it. I'm sure some bozos would have hated him, but let's face it, most of us would sympathize with him.
September 13th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
OMG, Bartman was not trying to hurt his team...
September 13th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
This is a little off the subject, but what if George Brett's pine tar home run had been hit in the 7th inning ( or the 3rd inning), it had been appealed, and the umpire's decision had removed the runs which would have given the Royals the victory. Would Lee McPhail have had the courage to rule as he did if the game had to be replayed from an earlier inning and the performance of numerous batters had to be cancelled?
In the real game George Brett was never officially ejected for his outburst. What if the Yankees had tied the game in the 9th and the game went into extra innings? Would Brett have been allowed to bat when his turn came up again?