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June 9, 2010

MARK BENNETT: Baseball witnesses a world-class showing on a historic mistake

Mark Bennett The Tribune-Star The Tribune Star Wed Jun 09, 2010, 10:50 PM EDT

TERRE HAUTE — Perfect games are rare in baseball.

Umpire Jim Joyce’s deed was more rare, these days, and far more valuable.

Here’s what should’ve happened last week in Detroit’s Comerica Park:

Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga has gotten all 26 Cleveland batters out so far. He’s one out away from completing a “perfect game” — 27 up and 27 down, a feat only accomplished 20 times in big-league baseball history, dating back to 1880. The 27th Indians batter, Jason Donald, hits a grounder toward the second-base hole. As Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera moves right and fields it, Galarraga dutifully races to cover first, catches Cabrera’s throw and tags the bag a half-step ahead of Donald.

Then Joyce, the first base ump, calls Donald out, and Galarraga joins Don Larsen and Sandy Koufax in the history books.

What actually happened includes everything above, except that last sentence.

Joyce, a well-regarded 22-year veteran, thought the Indians runner beat the throw and called him safe. Almost everyone else — Tigers manager Jim Leyland, Galarraga’s teammates, 17,738 fans in Comerica, and the TV cameras — saw it otherwise. Leyland gave Joyce an earful, but the call stood. Galarraga returned to the mound, recorded in essence the 28th straight out, and finished with a one-hit win.

Moments later, Joyce asked a clubhouse attendant to cue up the replay in the umpires’ dressing room. That’s when Joyce realized he’d blown the call. He also realized it wasn’t just any call. It was, as he put it, “a ‘history’ call.”

That’s when Jim Joyce did the hardest thing — the right thing.

A half-hour after the debacle, Joyce asked that Galarraga visit the umps’ dressing room. There, immediately, Joyce man-upped, apologized.

“I’m so sorry in my heart,” he told the young ballplayer, according to the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

Galarraga answered, with unintended irony, “Nobody’s perfect.”

Joyce could’ve responded in so many other ways, so typical in 2010.

He could’ve dodged a face-to-face, man-to-man talk with Galarraga forever, conversing only when forced during future games. He could’ve ducked from the media, refusing to answer their questions and explain his call. He could’ve hired a consultant to write a carefully crafted statement, admitting that “mistakes were made” on the final call, and apologizing only for offending the Tigers and their fans. He could’ve blamed his bad decision on fatigue from the tasking atmosphere in which umpires work.

He could’ve ignored replays, shoved his gear in his tote bag, headed back to his hotel room, and stubbornly clammed up for eternity, pretending that nobody’s dreams were spoiled.

But he didn’t.

Major League Baseball wanted to take some heat off Joyce and send in a replacement for the next day’s game at Detroit, just 15 hours after his historic blunder. Joyce refused. He put on his equipment to work behind the plate.

For the pregame ritual of both teams’ managers handing the home-plate ump their lineup cards, Leyland sent Galarraga instead. The crafty manager — one of baseball’s finest — wanted to let Tiger fans display some sportsmanship and “show what they are all about,” Leyland told reporters. At that meeting, Joyce and Galarraga shook hands. As the ump turned to grab the Indians’ lineup card, he discreetly wiped away tears. Galarraga slapped him on the back, and Joyce returned the gesture. Then they moved on to Game 53 of the 2010 season, with 109 to go.

Joyce showed courage. Galarraga showed class.

The ump’s resume includes working two World Series, but choosing to stand in front of reporters after his mistake put Joyce on a new kind of hotseat. That took guts. “I took a perfect game away from that kid over there who worked his [butt] off all night,” Joyce said resolutely.

“It’s probably the most important call of my career, and I missed it,” he admitted.

Joyce’s call created a perfect storm for advocates of using instant replays to settle close calls in baseball. But the national pastime already has a problem with the length of its games, and replays would only slow things more. Mistakes are part of the game. Players make them (they’re called errors). Managers make them (they get fired, as a result). Umps make them (they get heckled and booed).

That whole debate misses the point of what happened on June 2 in Detroit — America needed to see something like that.

Jim Joyce messed up. He realized there would be no do-over; his mistake stuck. He owned his error, faced the music and accepted it without challenge, excuses or angry defensiveness. He apologized to the guy affected most. Galarraga forgave him.

Little Leaguers, Babe Ruth Leaguers and high school players take note — that’s called being a man.



Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

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Copyright 2012 News From Terre Haute, Indiana. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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