Marshall Mayer, 12-year-old son of Westport Board of Finance member Jeff Mayer, had heard his dad from time to time refer to a baseball incident involving another Jeff Mayer (actually spelled Maier).
But, according to his father, it didnt really sink in—until Tuesday night.
ғMarshall was watching the Cubs-Marlins game and fell asleep, the elder Mayer told WestportNow today.
ԓThe Cubs were winning when he dozed off and when he woke up, the Marlins had turned it around in the eighth and all the announcers were referring repeatedly to Jeff Maier. He was astounded.
As all baseball fans surely know by now, the eighth inning at Wrigley Field included a fan preventing Cubs left fielder Moses Aliou from catching a foul fly hit by Luis Castillo.
What followed, as AP sports writer Ben Walker put it, ԓwas a sudden collapse that would rival anything in the Cubs puzzling painful past Җ and the emergence of baseballs most infamous fan since Jeffrey Maier.Ҕ
Unlike the 12-year-old Maier in the 1996 ALCS game at Yankee Stadium, this fan did not reach over the wall, according to replays and those in the stands.
In 1996, Maier reached over the right field wall and deflected the Yankee batters fly ball into the stands. The umpires ruled it a home run and it helped the Yankees tie the Orioles in the eighth inning. The Bombers went on to win the game.
ғMarshall now knows the whole Jeff Maier story, Mayer said. ԓHes finally at an age when he can appreciate it and laugh about it.Ҕ
