Tonight I was supposed to board a plane at 8:00 for Indianapolis. It is now 10:46 and we just got in the air about 10 minutes ago after a 2 1/2 hour delay.
Amazingly, the unexpected and unwanted extra time spent at the airport was rather entertaining because all Twitter broke loose with one blown call by MLB umpire Jim Joyce. (Also in the amazing category: I’m writing this post and publishing this post from 30,000 feet in the air!)
Surely you have seen the blown call heard ’round the world by now. Just in case you haven’t, here is the sure-to-be-removed-soon-by-the-MLB-video-gestapo video of Jim Joyce’ blown call that cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game:
Video: Blown Call by Jim Joyce Costs Armando Galarraga Perfect Game
[Note: Major League Baseball inexplicably does not allow embedding of its videos on non-MLB owned sites. Thus, I fully expect the above video to hit the showers soon. If it does, try this video of the blown call by Jim Joyce that was posted by Jimmy Traina earlier tonight.]
What an unfortunate and untimely error by Joyce. It would be understandable and perhaps even slightly palatable if the play was somewhat close, somewhat of a “bang-bang” play, as they say; but it wasn’t. Not even close.
And Joyce blew it beyond belief.
All you have to do is look at this still image if you’re not convinced:
Screenshot via Jose3030 (hat tip: Chris Littmann at The Sporting Blog)
Galarraga got the next batter out to complete the first de facto 28-out perfect game in MLB history. It will be very interesting to see if Major League Baseball makes any kind of official apology / declaration about the game. Asterisk anyone?
To his credit, Joyce did not get his panties in a bunch a la Joe West; he admitted his egregious error. In fact, what occurred after the game may be even more meaningful in a macro sense, because of its ability to teach an important lessons about sportsmanship, than Galarraga throwing a perfecto.
Update: Just found audio of Jim Joyce’s post game words: Click there to listen. Full accountability.
From the Detroit Free Press story on Jim Joyce’s blown call:
About a half hour after tonight’s game, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was asked to visit Jim Joyce in the umpires’ dressing room at Comerica Park.
Galarraga said Joyce told him, “I’m so sorry in my heart. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I told him, ‘Nobody’s perfect,’ ” Galarraga said. “What am I going to say?”
Galarraga said that — “nobody’s perfect” — without any irony or sarcasm, although on this night against Cleveland he believed he was perfect.
Either man could have dug in his heels and displayed stubbornness. Joyce obviously would have been in the wrong, but hey, he wouldn’t be the first umpire/ref to be unapologetic after blowing a call. He didn’t though. He displayed both humility and humanity, which was reciprocated by Galarraga.
Sure, it would have been great to see the third perfect game of the season and fourth in the last two, and Galarraga certainly deserved it, but hopefully how the way the two principle actors in this drama handled its aftermath will serve as lesson to athletes and non-athletes alike: things don’t always go our way; mistakes are made and circumstances can be unjust; but, in the end, we’re all humans, and we should always treat eachother with respect.
You know, or something like that.
Actually, what hopefully comes out of this is the need for Major League Baseball to step into the 21st century and have a better replay system to prevent situations like this from occurring. There has to be something. Has to be.
Anyway, in closing I would just like to say thank you to Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce for making my airport delay far more entertaining and intriguing than I ever expected it to be.
Oops, the stewardess is here with the drink cart. Yeah, did I mention I’m blogging on an f’ing airplane!!!
Update: Major League Baseball and commish Bud Selig are reportedly looking into what can be done to “remedy” last night’s blown call. I assume that one of the potential remedies does not involve calling a ticket broker to pick up the leftover tickets to Roy Halladay’s perfect game for passing out in Detroit. Of course, this is Selig that we are talking about, so you never know…
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