Yeah, me too. He seems like a good umpire and just blew a single call in a very, VERY big spot; he admitted it and seems genuinely upset and apologetic that he did blow it. It sucks for Armando, but it sucks for Joyce, too. They both handled the aftermath unbelievably well.
Him admitting what is perfectly obvious to everyone does not erase that he totally screwed someone over by his mistake.
Both these guys have really shown great sportsmanship which is refreshing in this day of players acting like spoiled brats and prickly umps like what happened to Oswalt.
true. But in reality, everyone knows his game was perfect, including the pitcher. Actually, a person reasonably well grounded and non ego-maniac should be able to say "yeah, it stinks, but I and everyone else know it was a perfect game". This "perfect game" may actually be the most memorable in history because of this. Everyone will think about this game and say that a perfect game was pitched but it was not a perfect game called.
what other ones were there? are you referring to the 1908 game when the ump said he said he should have called a 3rd strike? or the 1972 game where the last guy was walked on a borderline 3-2 pitch?
yeah, poor minorities are making radical changes in leadership spots in all of the other pro sports, moe.
This is the outcome I expected; don't get me wrong, I wasn't "hoping" for this decision to maintain the "integrity" of the game, but with Selig in charge, it was to be expected. I was thrown for a loop when Selig instituted instant replays of home run calls -- midseason. Just a very erratic decision. It's not that big of a rule alteration, and was definitely necessary ever since all of these new and unique ballparks with varying sight lines have been built, replacing the essentially identical field dimensions of the cookie cutter era. It's probably a combination of the Astros piss-poor management decisions in recent years as well as the reluctance and confusion from MLB and the Player's Union regarding steroids, but baseball has been dead to me in recent years. I think the structure of the teams, the persistent refusal to advance technological innovations to assist the game, the egotistic pretension that is the Hall of Fame, the obliviousness to understanding who the every day fan is, and overall arrogance from poor leadership will hurt the sport in the long term. I honestly have to say that I take enjoyment out of every scandal and misstep that Major League Baseball has been involved with in recent years.
Bumping this one to show that the mechanism already exists which may have been able to overturn Joyce's call. It's a long read, but here is the important part: "McClelland noted that the ruling falls under Rule 9.02 (c) which gives the umpire making a decision the right to consult with the other umpires before making a final decision. The umpires then have the discretion to eliminate the earlier call." http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/..._id=11304398&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou
sounds like they may have been able to use that for the joyce call...no way in hell you can do what they did last night though (not that it matters, but whatever). you can't decide what you think most likely would have happened on the play. that's just insane. no out was ever made at first. the ump missed a call and thought blum caught it. happens all the time. don't understand how they even considered reversing this after the play ended. nobody gives a crap about the stros/royals game, so i'm guessing MLB will be doing what they can to keep this relatively quiet.
The problem here is that the Joyce call was still a close play - not in baseball terms, but in real-life, real-speed terms - it not like he was out by 10 feet. None of the other umps would have been watching the foot vs the bag vs the catch - it's just not their job and they weren't close enough. So he could have consulted with them, but they wouldn't have been able to provide better information. It would have been an overturn just based on "we want the guy to have a perfect game" as opposed to "we really thought he was out".
Exactly. This incident highlights everything that is good in sports. Kids and adults alike could learn a whole lot about life from people like Galarraga, Joyce, and John Wooden (RIP).
I completely agree, however it was possible that during the ensuing argument for Joyce to say , "maybe I did miss it, let me ask the 2nd or 3rd base umpire if they had a better view". The point is there currently is an actual rule in place for umpires to discuss judgement calls and change the outcome.
