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No way would Ichiro Suzuki have caught a ball ruled an out by fan interference Saturday, McRae and others say.
By MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 4, 2001
SEATTLE -- It's not that the Rays don't think Ichiro Suzuki, the Mariners' Japanese sensation, is a special athlete.
It's just that they don't necessarily think he's quite as gifted as, say, umpire Scott Higgins apparently does.
"He's not Spiderman," Rays manager Hal McRae said.
Higgins' controversial call in Saturday night's 7-4 loss to the Mariners remained the subject of discussion in the Rays clubhouse Sunday morning.
The Mariners were leading 7-2 when Russ Johnson hit a fly ball foul of the rightfield line. Suzuki raced for it and leapt as he reached the side wall, but the ball was caught by a fan, who appeared to be clearly on his side of the wall and not leaning over the field.
Higgins, though, called Johnson out, determining that Suzuki would have made the catch had the fan not interfered. McRae disagreed, and his protest resulted in his third ejection of the season.
"For him to catch that ball, it was going to take three things," McRae said Sunday. "He was going to have to run, jump and stretch, and I said, "How in the hell can you anticipate him catching the ball after he does those three things?' "
Suzuki, showing he is wise to American customs even without a grasp of the English language, insisted he would have made the play. "I was going to catch that ball," he said through an interpreter.
More than one Ray mentioned the possibility that Saturday's call may have been related to one Higgins blatantly missed in Friday's game. Johnson ended up with an unexpected double when Higgins, somehow, ruled that Seattle leftfielder Mark McLemore didn't make what clearly appeared to be a running catch before the ball hit the ground.
"A lot of guys have said it might have been a makeup call, but that shouldn't be the case," Johnson said. "If he did it that way, that's unprofessional. You don't make calls that way."
The controversial call wasn't the only thing remarkable about the game, which saw the Rays waste a 2-0 lead when Ryan Rupe gave up five runs in the first, allowing seven consecutive Mariners to reach.
Besides the comedy of a fan running on the field wearing only yellow boxers, there was the Rays' usual dose of ineptness.
The score was 5-2 in the fourth with two Mariners on and two out when Edgar Martinez hit a drive to deep center.
Gerald Williams should have made the play -- "I thought it was catchable," McRae said -- but as he backed into the padding, the ball hit the wall, bounced off his left shoulder and hit the ground. While producers of those baseball blooper tapes were undoubtedly happy, two runs scored and, even worse for Rupe, the play was scored a double rather than an error.
Williams had no excuses, or explanation, for what happened. "It's a play I can make," he said, "and I didn't make the play."