Jim Joyce: Hated by the World

Here on SportsRadioNY, we usually write NY articles. Well, this has nothing to do with New York, but it has to be mentioned.

Armando Galarraga, of the Detroit Tigers, was on his way to perfection. It would have been the third perfect game thrown in the MLB in 2010.

Galarraga had nailed down 26 in a row until Indians shortstop Jason Donald came to the plate. He hit a ball deep into the hole at first.

Miguel Cabrera fielded the ball and flipped it to Galarraga covering on a bang-bang play. First base umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe.

Upon further review, it was incredibly clear that Donald was out.

It is very frustrating just that the call was not even close. Now with a play that was this obvious, that means one thing. The umpire did not actually know the correct call.

Jim Joyce saw the play develop and after the play ended, he had no clue what the correct call was. If he knew the correct call, he would have called him out.

That means after the play, Joyce had two options at his disposal: out or safe. Joyce chose safe.

In my book, that makes him a jerk (and I use the term jerk because this is a published blog. I do not use the term “jerk” here when speaking off the record).

And just an added note. Of course, the perfect game would have been thrown against Cleveland. Jim Joyce’s place of birth? Ohio.

–Mark Elliot Wishnia–