Chuck Knoblauch will never live this down if Cleveland winds up ending the New York Yankees' season.
As Enrique Wilson swirled around the bases like a tornado, Knoblauch kept pointing at first base, trying to get umpires to call interference on Travis Fryman.Knoblauch pointed and pointed, but the call never came. And all the while, the ball sat on the infield dirt for all to see.
By the time Knoblauch finally picked up the ball and threw it, Wilson was flopping into home plate with the go-ahead run.
"I'm pretty shocked. . . . I was kind of dumbfounded," Knoblauch said Wednesday after the Indians' 4-1, 12-inning victory over New York, which tied the American League championship series at a game apiece.
Yankees fans, angry at his no-brainer, had a harsher assessment, booing him loudly when he came to the plate in the bottom half.
"Blockhead," screamed the front-page headline in Thursday's New York Post.
"Chuck Brainlauch," added the back page.
At Yankee Stadium, it seems the wild is the norm during October. And this time, the Indians were the beneficiary, happy to head home to Jacobs Field without a pair of losses.
"You come into New York, you come away with a split, I think you can go home and feel like you did something," said Fryman, who got his first sacrifice in two years. "It was a great win to me. I don't care how I win, as long as you win."
Jim Thome had singled off Jeff Nelson, the eventual loser, leading off the 12th, Cleveland's first runner since Omar Vizquel tripled with one out in the eighth. Wilson ran for Thome, and Fryman sent a bunt up the first-base line to Tino Martinez.
"I didn't have much room to really work with," Martinez said. "The ball was bunted right next to the line. I was trying to sneak it in there."
Knoblauch had come over from second to take the throw and the ball struck Fryman, clearly running in fair territory, in the back. Wilson kept going, nearly tripping himself up as he headed home with gigantic strides. He sprawled into the plate with the go-ahead run just ahead of Jorge Posada's tag.
"I don't feel like I didn't play the ball out. I didn't know where it was," Knoblauch said.
Did the umpires make the right call? Crew chief Jim Evans said it's all a matter of interpretation.
"The fact that he was literally on the base or half a step from the base, he has the right to be in that position," said Evans.
The play will surely be debated, just like the Jeffrey Maier home run in 1996. That's when the Yankees snatched a win from Baltimore when the 12-year-old Maier caught Derek Jeter's fly before right fielder Tony Tarasco could get it, creating a home run.