BALTIMORE — Orioles fans can sleep well knowing Jeffrey Maier isn’t going anywhere near the Yankees-O’s ALDS.
“Tell them I am going to watch it sitting in my living room over the fireplace on a Samsung,” Maier told The Post from his southern New Hamphsire home last night.
Maier, now 28, was a 12-year-old sitting in the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS between the Yankees and Orioles. With Baltimore ahead, 4-3, Derek Jeter lofted a fly ball to right that Maier got a hand on while appearing to having his arms over the wall and in play with Tony Tarasco waiting to catch it.
Right field ump Richie Garcia ruled it a home run and the Yankees won the game.
Asked how many times he has heard Maier’s name in the past two weeks, Jeter said, “Two.’’
Sixteen years later Jeter was coy on the subject.
“They couldn’t overrule it,’’ Jeter said. “I didn’t see it.’’
Maier, a director of sales for League Apps which is based out of NYC, said he feels like the incident happened a long time ago.
“I have been married for 3 1⁄2 years and have kids so that seems like a while,” Maier said.
Do Red Sox fans give him a hard time?
“My wife is a Red Sox fan,” said Maier, who attended a Yankees-Orioles game this summer at the Stadium. “She has very few character flaws and that is one of them. I gave her a hard time this year.”
While not all O’s fans have forgiven Maier 16 years later, he says a few have.
“Through our company which works with sports leagues I have made some good friends with some people in Baltimore,” he said.
Mark Teixeira — who grew up Severna Park, Md., a Baltimore suburb — specifically recalled the Maier play, widely considered the most famous play in Yankees-Orioles history.
“One of the worst calls in baseball history,” Teixeira said. “That hurt as an Oriole fan in high school.”
Teixeira was caught off guard when asked Friday if it would mean something to him to face the Orioles in the playoffs.
“I haven’t really thought about that yet,” he said, before adding, “I guess so.”