Some of you are too young to remember when Jeffrey Maier made headlines around the sports world with an ill-fated attempt to catch a fly ball during the New York Yankees-Baltimore Orioles AL Championship series back in 1996.
Here’s some of the back story.
With the Yankees trailing Baltimore 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 1 of the series, shortstop Derek Jeter hit a deep fly to right fielder Tony Tarasco, who seemed prepared to make the catch. However, Maier (then 12 years old) reached over the fence and interfered with the outfielder.
The ump ruled it a homer, which tied the game at four. Bernie Williams then hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11th to give the Yankees a 4-3 win. New York went on to win the series in five.
Now 31, Maier is back in the news. Heritage Auctions reportedly auctioned the glove off to an unknown bidder for $22,075 over the weekend. However, it wasn’t Maier who auctioned it off. Instead, it was an unnamed individual that bought it from him years back.
Here’s the glove and a screen cap of the play.
Courtesy of Heritage Auctions
One can only hope that Maier actually received a nice amount of cash for the glove in the first place.
H/t to CBS Sports for some of the information in this article.
Photo: ESPN.com