It was poor out, and the weather sucked on Wednesday, but the Orioles got their fourth win in the last thirteeen games as they beat the New York Mets, 6-4 at the Yard.
Nick Markakis went 4-for-4 and Aubrey Huff had a go-ahead homer that made the difference — a two-run shot — but the talk yesterday was of Matt Wieters. Well, unless you’ve been under a rock, Matt Wieters hit his first major league homer and drove in his first runs last night off Met starter Tim Redding.
While driving around on business, it seems that the big issue — or non issue of the day– of the day (perhaps talk radio was bored) centered around souvenirs.
Notably what one should do with a home run ball — speficially, the first one by Matt Wieters.
This is courtesy of Peter Schmuck’s blog from the Baltimore Sun:
It seemed like a simple enough transaction. Matt Wieters hit his first major league home run and a guy named Sam Mayfield was on the other end of the deal, retrieving the ball and trading it back to the team for a Wieters autographed bat and ball and a chance to meet and talk to the boy wonder.
Except we all have awakened to a different version of the story. Mayfield and his wife have both posted comments on the blog (and I believe the posts are legit because of the e-mail addresses that accompanied them) claiming that the Orioles should have offered them much more for the ball and making it sound like the Orioles owe them more stuff and some kind of apology.
If you want to read their accounts, you can go to the comments under my previous post on the Wieters souvenir. I also followed up and talked to Orioles officials who were party to the transaction to try and get a better idea of what happened.
There’s more at this link, but already, I find it freaking sad what’s going on. As we all know, anytime a fan gets a souvenir, it’s fair game and you can do whatever you please with it.
However, if you catch a ball and you’re given a inchby a player or the team but you want a mile, don’t expect anything in return. Especially, when it is from player — Matt Wieters (I don’t care what his projections are) who had only had up to that point 47 at-bats in the majors.
I know everyone wants to profit from something, but c’mon.
Some people have someperspective, and some people want the moon, the sun and the stars, and from what I’m reading in the piece from the Sun, it’s become murky and out of control.
I don’t know if this became a debate by the fan who caught the ball because of difference in generation thinking, a way to get closer to an athlete, profit or a combination of all the three; however, I do think as a fan, I and perhaps some others would have been content with giving Wieters the ball, congraulating him, getting a jersey or bat and going on with my life.
Sometimes, the first deal made is the best one.
