YANKEE PANKY
Fans in stands conspire to help Wise stump ump
IT WAS Derek Jeter’s 38th birthday but his team got the gift.
A blown call on Dewayne Wise’s non-catch down the left-field line helped the Bombers secure a 6-4 win over the Indians Tuesday night, sparking what is certain to be another round of calls for expanded instant replay.
“It happens, what are you going to do?” Joe Girardi said. “I’ve been on the wrong end of some calls. That’s part of the game you have to deal with.”
Phil Hughes dominated the Tribe with eight scoreless innings, but it took the misguided ruling to help get him through the seventh.
With the Yankees leading, 4-0, two outs and a runner at third, Jack Hannahan hit a foul pop down the left field line. Wise ran toward the stands in pursuit of the ball, getting a glove on it as he reached the wall.
Wise tumbled into the crowd, and as he rose to his feet and made his way back to the field, third base umpire Mike DiMuro called Hannahan out to end the inning.
There was only one problem. The ball was never in Wise’s glove.
“I’m not going to argue with him,” Wise said. “It was a tough angle for him. Stuff like that happens; they’re not perfect. He said, ‘Out,’ right away, so what was I supposed to do? Run back to left field? I ran off the field.”
Replays showed the ball hit Wise’s glove and immediately fell out, landing in the stands. As fans helped Wise to his feet, the ball seemed to wind up in the
YANKEES 6 INDIANS 4
outfielder’s glove, prompting the ump to make the incorrect call.
But as a fan told the Daily News, the ball never made it to Wise’s glove.
Vinnie Pellegrino, 38, of West Islip, L.I., picked it up and he handed it to his friend, Sal Azzariti, 41, also of West Islip. Azzariti tried to sneak the ball back into Wise’s glove before the umpire arrived but was unable to do so. “I couldn’t do it,” Azzariti told The News. “But when the ump called him out I just put the ball behind my back. And then I gave it to this boy behind me.”
That boy was 7-yearold Ben Pikor of Denville, N.J., who went home with the souvenir. DiMuro never bothered to ask Wise to show the ball, making one of the most boneheaded calls in recent memory. “I went out on the ball and saw the ball into his glove in the stands,” DiMuro said. “He disappeared into the stands and I believed that the ball was in his glove. In hindsight, I should have asked him to show me the ball since he fell into the stands and out of my line of vision.”
“He made the call really quickly so I just told myself to try to get up, keep everything together, and get off the field,” Wise said. “I saw him kind of looking at my glove, so I just got up, put my head down and ran off the field.”
Indians manager Manny Acta wasn’t sure what happened, but he had his suspicions when the Yankee Stadium scoreboard never showed a replay.
“We knew because they didn’t show it on the board,” Acta said. “It’s a great play, how come you’re not showing it on the board for the fans?”
Jeter, renowned for his own dive into the stands in left, was the first to congratulate Wise as the outfielder ran off.
While the blown call was the highlight — low light, perhaps? — the Yankees did enough right to pick up their fourth straight win.
The Yankees went 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position and got their obligatory home run, a solo shot by Alex Rodriguez in the seventh.
Things got tense in the ninth as Cory Wade allowed four runs, but Rafael Soriano recorded the final out to earn his 16th save.
Despite the video evidence, Acta was not upset by the call. “If you can get an out, why not?” Acta said. “We’ve had phantom tags in baseball forever.”
Hannahan, on the other hand, was steaming, especially after seeing the replay between innings. He came out for the bottom of the eighth and immediately started chirping at DiMuro, who ejected him.
“I can live with the fact that he didn’t see him drop the ball or the fan jumping up two feet away that was excited he got the foul ball,” Hannahan said. “But for him not to just ask him to see the ball, that’s absolutely inexcusable and it’s frustrating.”