Dewayne Wise makes pitching debut after making 'The Catch'

Two New York Yankees pitchers made their major league mound debuts on Friday night and one got rocked pretty bad while the other one was perfect.

During the 14-7 beatdown by the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium, Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, turned a laugher into a chuckle after he brought in outfielder Dewayne Wise to do some ninth-inning mopping up.

Wise added a little levity to a tough loss, retiring the two batters he faced to end the ninth inning after the White Sox had scored four runs to put it out of reach.  Rookie starter Adam Warren was a disaster— after blowing a four run lead in the second inning— during his first major league appearance.

Wise became infamous for making the non-catch the other night against the Cleveland Indians and duping umpire Mike DiMuro into calling Jack Hannahan's foul ball an out when the leftfielder clearly didn't catch the ball.

Do you think the home plate umpire's strike zone got a tiny bit smaller for Wise because of his controversial catch?  If it did, it didn't matter.

Wise came into pitch with one out in the ninth after being given "five or six throws" to warm up by Girardi— who probably ended up with his best pitching decision of the night by bringing in the gimmick pitcher.

The former White Sox player said his only regret was not throwing heat by his old teammate A.J. Pierzynski.

"Out of all the people on that team, I wish it would have been A.J. that I faced ," Wise said.  "I would have loved to try and strike him out."

Wise— a left-handed side-armer who has an 82 mph two-seam fastball— did manage to get out power hitters Paul Konerko and Alex Rios on a fly and ground out, respectively.

"I was very nervous," said Wise.  "I haven't pitched since my sophomore year in high school, so I was nervous, especially when [Rios] came up.

"For some reason I just thought that he was gonna hit the ball back at me. I just tried to not throw too hard, hopefully they'd be out front and get them out."

Girardi's gag move wasn't lost on Wise— the first-year Yankee.

"We got our butts kicked tonight," he said.  "It's just one game.  I came in and everybody kind of laughed about it, so we just gotta move on and get ready for tomorrow.'

Jersey kid with Dewayne Wise 'caught' ball says it wasn't a catch

The person who ended up with New York Yankee Dewayne Wise's infamous "caught" fly ball Tuesday night wasn't the guy who grabbed it or even the guy who tried to stuff the loose ball back into the leftfielder's glove— it was a seven-year old kid from New Jersey.

Little Ben Pikor ended up going home with the ball that umpire Mike DiMuro didn't look for and that Wise never sufficiently caught in his glove.

"I thought I was in a dream," the little Yankees fan told the New York Daily News.  "But I think the umpire made a bad call."

Ben was sitting with his mom, Anne Marie, along the third-base line at Yankee Stadium when the Cleveland Indians' Jack Hannahan popped a ball in their direction.  After Wise tumbled into the seats for the wayward ball, a mad scrum broke out and one fan, Vinnie Pellegrino, picked the ball from the floor and handed it to his pal Sal Azzariti— who tried to sneak it back into Wise's glove.

After the two adults tried to help the unsuspecting Wise with the great foul ball hoax, they slipped the incriminating evidence [the ball] to the kid.

DiMuro said the ball was caught, killing any chance of an Indians seventh-inning rally in a game the Yankees ended up winning, 6-4.

Ben's mom said, "It happend so quickly and the security guards were right there.  Dewayne tumbled into the seats and everyone was looking around, 'Where's the ball?  Where's the ball?,'  Vinnie had picked up the ball and was holding it above his head.  But the umpire comes over and yells, 'Out!.'"

It's a good thing for Yankees fans little Ben wasn't the ump.

"It was a fly ball in foul territory, coming toward us.  My cousin [Emily] was trying to catch it," said Pikor, a Little Leaguer.  "We didn't notice that Dewayne Wise was so close to us.  He just dove right into the stands.  It hit off the heel of his glove.  He didn't even catch it."

Out of the mouth of babes... even if they're Yankees fans.

VIDEO OF CATCH

Jersey kid ended up with ball after blown call on Wise play

Dewayne Wise didn't even have the ball in his possession after the Yankees left fielder leaped into the stands and umpire Mike DiMuro called Indians Jack Hannahan's pop fly an out.  DiMuro never even asked to see the ball in Wise's glove and he wouldn't have because it was in the hands of loyal Yankee fan Sal Azzariti— who tried to stick the ball back into Wise's glove before the left fielder lifted himself back onto the field.

The transfer was never completed and Wise just jogged off the field— sans baseball— next to Curtis Granderson, confessing that the "catch" was an act of unintentional pantomime.

"[DiMuro] said, 'Out,' right away," said Wise.  "So what was I supposed to do?  Run back to left field?"



While Wise dove into the seats for Indians Hannahan's foul ball, Vinnie Pellegrino of West Islip, N.Y. (in red shirt on left with arm visibly raised with ball!), picked up the wayward white sphere from the cement floor of the stands and handed it to his buddy Azzariti— who then tried getting an assist on the play.

"I couldn't do it," Azzariti told the New York Daily News. "But when the ump called him out I just put the ball behind my back.  And then I gave it to this boy behind me."

The boy, 7-year old Ben Pikor from Denville, N.J., is now the proud owner of the infamous ball.  While this souvineer doesn't have the significance of Derek Jeter's home run ball 12-year old Jeffrey Maier snagged in the 1996 ALCS, it is still another footnote in Yankees history.

At the end of the game— after the Yankees won, 6-4, and Hannahan was tossed for arguing the call— all Yankees manager Joe Girardi had to say about DiMuro was, "Nobody's perfect."

Umps blow call on Yankees catch but did fan try putting ball in fielder's glove?

Derek Jeter was celebrating his 38th birthday but it was left fielder Dewayne Wise who might have gotten the best gift of all last night after the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-4, in the Bronx.

Wise dove into the leftfield stands for a fly ball hit by the Indians' Jack Hannahan with a man on third during the seventh inning.  The umpires ruled a catch on the play for the final out of the inning but replays clearly show the ball falling out of Wise's mitt even though he mysteriously came up with the ball.

Upon closer examination of the play, it looks like one of the fans Wise plowed into could have— I said could have— popped the loose ball into his glove during the scrum even though a few of New York's Finest were right there.

That's hometown cooking.  Wise even got a police escort out of the stands as well.

Yankees starter Phil Hughes went eight shutout innings and benefited from the botched call and the Indians big chance at a rally.

Some Yankees fans might say Wise deserved credit for the catch based on effort alone. Apparently, Hannahan wasn't one of those and he was thrown out after getting into a heated argument with the umpires about the call.

The run ended up being more important later after reliever Corey Wade nearly coughed up the 4-0 lead when Cleveland rallied in the ninth.

Meanwhile, Jeter continued his climb up the all-time hits list and moved within one hit of his idol Cal Ripken Jr. for 13th on the list.