Perfecto ruined / Jim Joyce

[$heriff Tom]

Well, hello there. Well, heres the deal as I saw it.

Around 830 I get a text asking if its true someone is pitching a perfect game. I was dubious, as we have been through this twice this last month alone, and it was only 830. Well, it was true, and the game was flying, thus the time. But anyway.

Watched the last inning. Once Austin Jackson made that catch, that seemed to put it in the book. Then the call.

Wow. A few things. One, still against instant replay. What I AM for is more umpire confabs. No other umpire saw that? Yeah, it would involve calling out another ump, but in a case like that, I think umps should be able to huddle and get the call right. Nothing wrong with one ump flubbing an obvious call and being helped out or just overruled by another umpire who saw it clear. You telling me no one saw that clear?

I do feel bad for Jim Joyce. Sorry, I do. The guy has umped in the majors since 1989. Thought of very highly. Not one of the many prick umps we know of or hear about. The guy is supposedly top shelf. He screwed up, bad. In fact, I dont know how the Hell he did what he did. Makes no sense to me. But he's human, and I cant imagine how his heart fell when he saw how he blew that call when he got out back and saw it.

I am sad history was overwritten here, but Im having fun talking about it. Spent 20 minutes in the back with some of the sales force expunging on this. Listening to 1050-AM ESPN Radio when I normally avoid talk-sports radio, as it annoys me to no end.

I find it fun how in todays text message / twitter / facebook world, with MLB-TV and the MLB Package at our disposal, we get to see most or all of this real-time. The Tiger announcers last night were spot on and sold all this well.

But yeah, in finality, Im against expanding replay, I dont think Joyce should be reprimanded in any fashion, but I think umpires should be able to come up with a way to get these right amongst themselves.

PS - Joyce is going to have a Hell of a time out there today, working the plate for the Tigers / Indians this afternoon.

[MSBNYY]

Having you text the play by play came in handy except for how you broke the news the perfecto was done. One word..."D'oh."

Steve did a great job in the bleachers making the interest in the perfect game even higher than usual with his betting spree.

It was a terrible call. One of the worst I've ever seen if not THE worst. Well maybe not. Trying to think of calls that are comparable.

There was that ball that was about 2 feet fair that the Twins hit last year in the playoffs. Called foul. I don't know HOW an ump misses that with a big line there.

And I seem to remember a play in 1998 where Brosius dropped a ball on what I think was a force play and the runner was called out anyway. Blatant.

[$heriff Tom]

Well, I followed up the "Doh" like 5 seconds later with "Bang-Bang play at first...SAFE!"

Which was followed up less than a minute later with "3-1 groundout, umpire blew the call."

[MSBNYY]

That 5 seconds was huge. In that period of time, those following the game on cellphones spoiled it.

Still, your post call commentary definitely helped out. The saving grace of this bad call was Steve winning the bet that way.

That's actually better than a legit hit--for this purpose.

[grover]

Terrible call. I can't think of one that's worse. I mean, it wasn't even close.

How class is Galaraga though? He just went back to work. Poor kid.

[MSBNYY]

Since we all agree that the call was one of the worst ever, and we need to fight about something, what do you think of the possibility that Selig may overturn the call and restore the perfect game?

Personally, I think it's a terrible idea.

[grover]

I agree. Ha ha, no fight!!

[MSBNYY]

Damn it!

I've been talking to quite a few people about it, and there is a lot of support out there to overturn it. Given Selig's history of making stupid decisions, I actually think he's going to do it.

I think the more hardcore fans are against it, but the more sympathetic fans are not.

[Lindsey]

There needed to be a check and balances there last night. There HAD to be someone who saw the play. Even without instant replay, EVERYONE saw that the wrong call had been made.

I watched the game live and my heart just sank. It was so incredibly sad. Especially for a pitcher who wasn't even good enough to make the team from spring training =(

[Chris]

Days after, this is turning out to be much less of a big deal.

For all intents and purposes, Gallaraga threw a perfect game. His teammates, baseball fans, even MLB in official capacity (via Commissioner's statements) is recognizing that the guy threw a Perfecto despite the official scorer's card.

He can legitimately tell his grand kids about the time he threw a perfect game, and as a matter of fact, even though not a perfecto on paper, this "PERFECT GAME" will go down in history as the most memorable save Don Larsen's WS PG.

Even the ump who blew the call will probably come out of this unscathed. Typically, the more we know about umps, signifies that something bad happened. If no one knew Joyce before, now they do - and they know him as an honest, accountable, and respected human being.

[Chris]

Jim Joyce looks like Goose Gossage

[Lindsey]

He cried during the lineup exchange. LOL.

[$heriff Tom]

Well, some interesting results coming in from a random player poll SI conducted in the wake of the Joyce flub. 50 players from each league were polled.

First off, best umpire in the game? Voted by this group, Jim Joyce. Tim McLellan at a distant second. CB Bucknor was voted the worst, no one was even close to him.

Now, as to reply. Nearly 80% - 80%! of the players polled are AGAINST expanded use of instant replay. This is EXACTLY the same kind of findings Bud Selig reported - to much laughter - when he did his own canvassing after the Joyce play. Nearly 9 in 10 of the players polled think Selig did THE RIGHT THING with his decision to not overturn the call.

So, again, it seems the only ones pushing for replay are a loud base of the fans. The players and the game do not seem to want it.

[MSBNYY]

So what? Ultimately, the game is for the fans, and the fans would rather see the right call with a replay than a wrong call without one.

[$heriff Tom]

Yeah, but the fans will live if the players get their way. No one is going to stop watching baseball cause more replay is not added.

[MSBNYY]

Likewise, no player is going to retire if the replay is added.

[$heriff Tom]

Fine, but the way things stand this will not be bought to the table, and wont happen. Its becoming a moot issue. So things will stay as they are, which is fine by me. Im against added replay.

[MSBNYY]

I'm in favor!

[cactusjames]

For 100 years baseball has been run the same way and bad calls have cost the World Series and I know Derkinger or whatever his fucking name is gets death threats, but this was a perfect game and is getting more attention than a bad call costing a team the Championship. The game has always been officiated by human beings, now we want human error to be taken out of the game? Holy shit my head hurts.

[MSBNYY]

100 years ago, people weren't all using toilets. When technology improves, there's nothing wrong with baseball improving with it. One bad call is not the reason I want to see the replay expanded. This should have been done 20 years ago.

[cactusjames]

Eh.....100 years of tradition gets wiped out cause of a handful of bad calls over those 100+ years? The good outweighs the bad, leave the game alone. Every other sport has changed somewhat, baseball has only added more teams, they didn't have to change a thing all this time. I don't see changing it to make sure 4 calls get reversed a year.

[MSBNYY]

The good wouldn't need to be replayed. And 100 years of tradition of bad calls isn't something to hang on to. For thousands of years, humans took their shits in forests and outhouses. Then they invented the toilet.

For thousands of years, humans got around on horses. Then they invented cars.

Certain things like fair/foul, safe/out, and whether something is a HR should be replayed if close.

[cactusjames]

I think it changes the game. I'm simply against anything that changes the game. It still does not explain why for 100 years the game has been played the same way with no complaints, but now there's outrage over human error in a game played by humans. If you want to take all error out of the game let's switch to robots with a perfect fielding percentage and who bat 1.000 with 900 home runs every season. Why stop at fair and foul if human error is such a problem in baseball?

[$heriff Tom]

Im also against replay.

Balls, you're outnumbered. Again.

[MSBNYY]

Yeah--2 to 1 on this board.

As for no complains--there have always been complaints. Plus, once replay became as good as it is, there have always been calls for it. Jim Joyce's bad call did not start a sudden urge for replay. It just started a RECENT urge for replay. They were talking about that stuff when the umpires blew at least 504 calls in the playoffs last year, and other years.

Errors by players are part of the game. Errors by umpires are unacceptable.

[$heriff Tom]

Not just that. I showed you where PLAYERS and MANAGERS are also overwhelmingly against expanding it. And where is all the fan outrage that lasted a day? Its been shouted down, ignored.

[MSBNYY]

And they are just about 800 people in a country of millions of baseball fans.

[cactusjames]

"Errors by umpires are unacceptable."

You are retarded, players are human but Umpires can't be? It's a game played by humans, umpired by humans. And thankfully it's staying like that. There's nothing wrong with the game, you don't fix something that ain't broke.

[MSBNYY]

Players are supposed to affect a game. Umpires are not. Umpires enforce the rules, they don't insert themselves in the action.

There's a reason they have a limited replay now. When a ball is a foot fair, and it's called foul, that's a mistake that can't happen.