Pot Luck
Clubhouse commode creates chaos causing the i-Tribe's Liefer to turn tiger.

Pete Cava
MinorLeagueNews.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Throughout baseball history, games have been delayed by brawls, blackouts, injuries, inclement weather and even insect infestations. 

An April 29th International League contest between the Louisville Bats and the host Indianapolis Indians featured a unique holdup:  a call of nature that turned into a yell for help. 

In the top of the fourth inning the Indians took the field, but play didn’t resume. 

“At first I thought it might have been due to a TV or radio commercial that ran kind of long,” says Garry Donna, who was in the stands. 

The Indians had eight men on the field.  The ninth, first baseman Jeff Liefer, was locked in a clubhouse commode. 

 “I went to the restroom,” the chagrined Liefer explained later.  “When I went to leave, the handle didn’t want to work on the door, so I was stuck.”

Outside the latrine waiting his turn, teammate Matt Erickson heard Liefer struggling with the door handle.  Erickson tried to open it from the outside, with no luck.

Meanwhile, back in the dugout, Indianapolis manager Cecil Cooper couldn’t figure out his first baseman’s whereabouts.  “Then,” says Cooper, “somebody yelled, ‘He’s locked in the john!’”

Maintenance workers opened a vent above the door and passed a wrench to the trapped player.  Liefer managed to remove the door handle, but the bolt still wouldn’t budge.  “So I was just sitting there,” he says, “with a door with no handle.” 

The public address announcer delicately informed the crowd that that the game was delayed because a player had been detained in the clubhouse.  Many fans, including Garry Donna, assumed it was due to injury.  “Nobody even guessed the real reason,” he says. 

Maintenance crew workers handed a hammer and chisel to Liefer, who removed the door from its hinges and finally escaped from the privy.  The crowd of 5,096 greeted him with applause when he returned to the field. 

Louisville players weren’t as kind.  “The other team was on me a little bit,” says Liefer.  “They had a bunch of toilet paper waiting for me when I got out there.” 

The abashed infielder hopes he won’t be remembered for the incident.  “Hopefully, it’ll happen to someone else so it won’t be such a big deal,” says Liefer.

 Adding injury to embarrassment, the Indians lost 9-0.  Garry Donna said he didn’t find out the real reason for the delay – which lasted between 15-20 minutes – until after the game.  “I’ve been going to see the Indians regularly since 1954,” says the longtime season-ticket holder.  “They say if you keep going to baseball games, you’ll always see something new.  This was definitely a first.”

After such an episode, a lesser man might have gone to pot – but not the 29-year-old Liefer, who played in the majors from 1999-2003 for the White Sox, Expos and Devil Rays. In an 8-6 win over Toledo one day later, he went 3-for-3 with a double and a homer.  His six runs batted in tied a club record.  In the next game, Liefer’s home run was the difference in a 5-3 win over the Mud Hens.

 

 

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