Anybody listen to Galarraga on Baseball Tonight? It just gives me an admiration that's almost unparalleled.....the guy was just on the receiving end of what looks to be the worst blown call in sports history and he still seems to be keeping a very positive attitude the entire time. I admire him because I am some dude who really likes the Tigers and baseball and I am sitting here in my apartment steaming over it yet he is able to keep his head and basically take a positive perspective from it. Maybe I need to get my priorities straight.
...I am still disappointed by the call. I feel horrible for Armando, but strangely I feel horrible for Jim Joyce. He made a mistake, it happens. The rest of the guy's career will be defined by tonight; that's his punishment. Strangely if I was lucky enough to go to the ball game tomorrow I would cheer Jim Joyce. You could tell he felt horrible in his press conference, he apologized to Armando, it was a tough bang-bang play. Worst call in MLB history, let's at least say it is in the conversation. Is Jim Joyce the worst umpire ever? That seems unfair. Give the guy a break. Armando still pitched a perfect game to true Tiger fans.
JIm Joyce is lucky that it wasn't Verlander on the mound. Something tells me JV wouldn't have simply similed awkardly and hugged him after the game.
"Something tells me JV wouldn't have simply similed awkardly"
Would he have metaphored instead?
I found out he and my boss were roommates at BGSU.
Since we're within the six degrees of separation, maybe slapping ourselves silly screaming, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??!?" helps Jim Joyce feel it. Just a little bit.
let me say that I was as outraged -- and as disappointed -- as most of the posters before me on this thread when the call was made. I was in the stands when Tom Seaver lost a perfect game on a little flare hit by a career .220 hitter and I remember how deflated I was. But, as someone who writes about baseball for a fantasy baseball website, let me try to put some things in perspective. The ones who are most hurt by this are not Galarraga or the Tigers, but you the fans. The Tigers won the game, and twenty years from now, Galarraga will be remembered more than most of the 20 before him who threw a perfect game -- more baseball fans recall Harvey Haddix' 36 out perfect game against the Braves than most of the guys on the perfect game list. Do you think the Michigan legislature would be passing resolutions if Joyce got the call right? With regard to Joyce, not only does he get some credit for taking the blame, there may be an explanation -- albeit not a satisfactory explanation -- for how he missed the call. When there's going to be a close call at first, most umpires use the sound test. That is, they look at the runner and they listen for the slap of the ball into the first baseman's mitt. In this instance, Galarraga caught the ball in the web of the glove. Thus, it's possible there was no "thwack". That may be what happened to Joyce. Like I said, he made a mistake -- a bad one -- but aside from the timing, it's no worse than mistakes that were probably made in half the major league baseball games last night. Further, if baseball did have a replay rule, there would be very few calling for Joyce's head today. BTW, for a similar perspective on the imperfecto and Joyce, I commend to you Rob Neyer's column at espn.com.