NOTES : AUTUMN'S GRAND OLD GAME IS NEAR SPECTACLE PROPORTIONS.

Baseball as autumn spectacle is exceeded only by the changing leaves in New England, writes Gordon Edes of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

But what in the name of Bud Selig caused baseball in recent days to more closely resemble a freak show than the grand old game?

A review of recent events:

A cult of celebrity engulfed Jeff Maier, a 12-year-old New Jersey kid who was merely seeking a souvenir when he interfered with Derek Jeter's fly ball in Game 1 of the ALCS. The kid had barely made it back from the set of Good Morning America and his dugout seats for Game 2 when the backlash set in. More than one columnist - not only in Baltimore, where fans had a right to be annoyed, but in New York - took the poor kid and his entire family to task.

``He and his parents are an embarrassment, living symbols of many things that are wrong with our culture and our values,'' one wrote.

Hey, take a deep breath, everyone. Jeff Maier did what any 12-year-old kid with a glove would have done at the ballpark: He tried to catch a baseball. He didn't create the wave of nuttiness that followed; that was purely a media production. And we're supposed to call the family chumps because they enjoyed themselves for a day? I think not.

Still, how absurd can it get when a trading card company said it plans to include Maier in its collection next season?

Rich Garcia, the umpire whose mistaken judgment created a huge break for the home-team Yankees, signed autographs between innings the next day in the same ballpark. How come grandstanding Richie Phillips, the umpires' union boss, didn't call a press conference to discuss that?

There may be no rule against umpires signing autographs, but common sense - especially in the eye of controversy - should suffice.

A Washington Post columnist and esteemed author of numerous books on baseball, Thomas Boswell, momentarily exercised judgment as misguided as Garcia when he wrote that Garcia figuratively spat in the faces of Roberto Alomar and the rest of the Baltimore Orioles. Boswell further impugns Garcia's integrity by suggesting that subconsciously, he may have been influenced by the Alomar spitting incident.

Boz, the guy just blew a call, OK? As the T-shirt being sold outside of Oriole Park in Camden Yards pointed out, ``Spit Happens.''

Cardinals owner's wife hit by foul ball: The wife of one of the owners of the St. Louis Cardinals was knocked unconscious during Game 3 of the National League Championship Series after being struck on the head by a foul popup.

Kathy Hanser, the wife of Fred Hanser, was sitting in the front row just to the right of home plate when she was hit during Marquis Grissom's at-bat to start the third inning. Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi lunged into the stands to try to catch the ball.

Team trainer Gene Gieselmann left the dugout to administer to Hanser and Cardinals team physician Stan London also was at her side. She had been revived and was wearing a neck brace at the half-inning when she was taken by stretcher to the trainers' room, team official Joe Abernathy said.

Preliminary X-rays were negative on Hanser, who was taken to Barnes-Jewish Hospital to see a neurosurgeon and possibly undergo a CAT scan.

Gamble fails: Andruw Jones became one of the youngest players ever to start in postseason, and results were mixed.

Jones, who turned 19 in April, struck out, grounded out and walked Saturday, though he played flawlessly in left field. The decision by Cox to start him, though, meant that Ryan Klesko and his 34 homers sat on the bench.

Jones started the year playing for Single-A Durham, but moved up through the ranks in less than two months. He hit just .217 for Atlanta, but against left-handers he hit .379 with 10 of his 11 hits for extra bases.