Where Are They Now: Fan Interference Edition

"I didn't mean to do anything bad," Maier explained at the time. "I'm just a 12-year-old kid trying to catch a ball." But other fans were not so understanding. In a game at Williams College in Massachusetts in his sophomore year, he played center field. Fans threw snow and ice.

As a proud graduate of Williams College, one of the greatest of our country's intellectual institutions, I can't condone the shenanigans perpetrated by current Ephmen and women.  On the other hand, it can get lonely in the Berkshires, it was Jeffrey Maier, and beer consumption was never one of our lesser talents.  Today the New York TImes updates us on one of MLB's most infamous former urchins, the kid who infamously caught the fly out home run at Yankee Stadium that should have been caught by Tony Tarasco, the little punk kid who likely saved the Yankees' postseason of 1996.  He's now onto other things at Wesleyan University, one of the two lesser schools of the vaunted Little Three.  Good for him.  He just might want to steer clear of the Dennett House Orioles fans on his next trip to the Purple Valley, and all should be well.

Comments

[YF]

How good can a Williams education be if they can't even figure out an appropriate team name? Ephs? Shouldn't you people be Dubyas?

[Spidey]

Whoa. Watch it, YF. Them's fightin' words.

[SF]

Eph. As in Ephraim Williams, the founder of our school, and a soldier who died heroically in the French and Indian War. It's got character. It's certainly better than some sort of generic, azure, flitty bird.

[YF]

Killed by the French, was he? Hmm.

[NickYF]

"He's now onto other things at Wesleyan University, one of the two lesser schools of the vaunted Little Three."

Doug Bennett, the bumbling president of Wesleyan, attempted to change the image of the school with a campaign that coined us "The Independent Ivy". It was shameful. We did feel like the least of the 3 after that.

Re: Maier. I always liked the kid for some reason, and now I know why.

[take it easy]

I wouldn't say Williams is one of the greatest. It's pretty good.

[Pappa C]

Williams College also spawned a certain megalomaniacal cretin who single-handedly sought to ruin the national pastime (some say he has succeeded):

http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=8712

Perhaps Big Stein's myriad psychoses can be attributed to a massive inferiority complex stemming from his inability to gain admission to the Ivy League?

Sorry, SF!

[SF]

Hey, despite my lack of fondness for Steinbrenner (he once rudely landed a helicopter in the middle of our keg soccer game on a visit to see his kid -- at least we were told it was him), it's very hard to say that he has ruined anything - the owners are a cartel and he's just one dislikable guy amongst the lot of them. And he's been less damaging a figure to the world (it's just baseball, for crying out loud!) than another (former) baseball owner who was (supposedly) schooled down the road in New Haven. At this point I'd rather be an Eph than an Eli!

[whatever]

The Ephs? Hmmm.. I thought maybe you were called the Ephs because the whole school was wired on ephedrine (Ma Huang), the herbal stimulant recently banned by the FDA.

[SF]

Ephedrine and Milwaukee's Best don't mix well, WE, so we always steered clear.

[Pappa C]

As is the case with most Ivy Leaguers, Williams was Dubya's safety school.

All in good fun, SF!

[SF]

I am willing to be that the person who calls him/herself "Pappa C" went to Harvard, even despite the Billsville reference. The sneering arrogance shows through, even in this virtual world of ours. ;)

[whatever]

No, by and large it's not a good idea to throw stimulants and depressants into the body at the same time, although God knows a lot of people do just that, liking the ability to drink like a fish, yet still be able to function and not pass out.

[airk]

The funny thing is that "Ephs" isn't even the most ridiculous mascot in the Little Three: that honor goes to the Lord Jeffs of Amnherst.

[SF]

"Lord Jeff is Fat"

One of our favorite, utterly sophomoric (but physically accurate) cheers at athletic contests involving a co-ed dressed up as the Amherst mascot.