Front Office

LeagueApps Signs Yankee Super-Fan Jeffrey Maier For His Helping Hands

profile
By LeagueApps
March 13, 2012
2 min

LeagueApps’ newest employee, Jeff Maier, recently joined our team to manage new league partnerships for our LeagueApps platform. Jeff had all kinds of great qualities and skills that made him the right man for the role. He gained great experience as a key member of a growing software infrastructure sales team in his previous position. He’s been involved in sports his entire life and currently holds the all-time base hits record at Wesleyan University, where he captained the squad during his senior campaign. He worked in professional baseball and has coached high school and baseball camps. Jeff is passionate, hard working, innovative and fits in perfectly with our LeagueApps squad.

If that isn’t impressive enough, then let us share with you what young Jeff was able to do for the New York Yankees baseball franchise. In 1996, the Yankees had a promising playoff team featuring a talented but unproven rookie named Derek Jeter. Despite George Steinbrenner’s best efforts, the Yankees were in the midst of an 18-year championship drought (the longest in the storied franchise’s history). In the opening game of the ALCS, Jeter stepped to the plate in the 8th inning with the Yankees down 4-3. Jeter drove a long fly to right field. As Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco backed up to the fence to attempt to catch the ball a young 12-year-old fan stuck out his glove and snatched the ball into the stands. The umpires official ruling was a Home Run! The Yankees would go on to win the game and the World Series. Actually, it was the start of one of the most impressive dynasties in baseball history as the Yankees would win three more championships in the next four years. Derek Jeter has gone on to be one of the best baseball players in the history of the game.

That fan that caught the ball…That’s Jeff! Ask him about it (or read about him on Wikipedia). His version is a much more modest yet entertaining account of the sensational events. Just be warned, he might also try and share with you why LeagueApps is the right digital solution for your sports organizations. He also might block your call if it’s from a 410 area code as Orioles fans still give him grief to this day!

The Major League Baseball Network rates Jeff’s play as the 6th best fan moment in baseball history. MLB also recently did a featured segment to commemorate the play. In 2006, the New York Times did a story on Jeff’s quest to play professional baseball.

 

 

While we applaud Jeff for his great play, we most appreciate that he brought his baseball glove to the game! (Our partnership manager, Asaf, also appreciates that Jeff enjoys getting sushi for lunch.) That’s the type of kid who loves the sport so much he always wants to be part of it…for his entire life. We’re glad to give Jeff another opportunity to make sports part of his life. We’ll even let him bring his glove to work if he wants!