Umpire's Gaffe Costs Tigers' Pitcher Perfect Game

I just made this.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/283/tigers.gif

Reaction to blown call in perfect game.

I don't know whats funnier, his reaction changing or the nut grab.

I like the way everyone has handled themselves in this. Nobody is crying foul, the ump owned up to his mistake, I think there's some valuable lessons to be learned in all of this. It's a game played by humans, umped by humans, etc. Mistakes are gonna happen. It's sucks that a mistake happened in such a crucial time no doubt, but that's life.

As I said before, the MLB needs to start fining umps when they do things like this. I can understand bang-bang plays because face it, those are hard to tell and human error can come into play on that.

When you have clear outs, such as the out last night in the game, the guy swinging across home plate by a good foot and called no swing, players being tagged before hitting the base and being ruled safe, I think something needs to be done and I only see fines being a reasonable choice.

The Nationals have lost a good 8 games because of the umping this season.
I agree. Players are held accountable for their performances and so should officials. Replay needs to be enacted in more cases in baseball as well. As slow as the pace is they could easily check it on replay before the next pitch would be thrown anyways in most cases.

heard a story coming in to work today. apparently an ump admitted that during a world series game back in the day he widened the strike zone for henson (idk i forgot the pitcher) b/c he wanted to see henson pitch a perfect game in the WS. now thats some BS.

this, man, joyce must feel horrible.

reminds me of the WS last year where a player was called out at 2nd but the damn yankee player never had his foot on 2nd base. surprised that play didnt make mlb intoduce replay to plays outside of fair or foul. this play certainly should.

did I mention I hate baseball:

Adam_Schefter

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he will not change the umpire's call, it will not be a perfect game, live with it. Baseball. 10 minutes ago via web

heard a story coming in to work today. apparently an ump admitted that during a world series game back in the day he widened the strike zone for henson (idk i forgot the pitcher) b/c he wanted to see henson pitch a perfect game in the WS. now thats some BS.

this, man, joyce must feel horrible.

reminds me of the WS last year where a player was called out at 2nd but the damn yankee player never had his foot on 2nd base. surprised that play didnt make mlb intoduce replay to plays outside of fair or foul. this play certainly should.

you can tell how stuff like this happens in extra inning and other marathon games.. strike zones get much larger as the umps get tired/bored

or the infamous NBA playoff extensions where calls go almost all one way depending who needs to win the game to extend the series, etc

I bet if they really got into it and some didn't mind baring all we'd hear a lot of disgusting stories like this

I think that I've mentioned it on here before but a guy I know who was an ACC football ref was told to "not make it easy" when VT entered the conference

Did I just hear that right on ESPN? That the commissioner agrees it was a bad call, has the power to change the call and isn't going to!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

I like the way everyone has handled themselves in this. Nobody is crying foul, the ump owned up to his mistake, I think there's some valuable lessons to be learned in all of this. It's a game played by humans, umped by humans, etc. Mistakes are gonna happen. It's sucks that a mistake happened in such a crucial time no doubt, but that's life.

Totally agree. This is a really solid read from ESPN.com:

Jim Joyce returns to work as MLB decides whether to review blown call that costs Armando Galarraga of Detroit Tigers perfect game - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5246454)

Totally agree. This is a really solid read from ESPN.com:

Jim Joyce returns to work as MLB decides whether to review blown call that costs Armando Galarraga of Detroit Tigers perfect game - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5246454)

Joyce showed up to work Thursday looking as if he hadn't slept. He appreciated the outpouring of support from umpires, family and friends but lamented strangers lashing out at his wife and children.


"I wish my family was out of this," Joyce said, holding back tears as he spoke nearly two hours before the Indians-Tigers series finale. "I wish they would direct it all to me. It's a big problem. My wife is a rock. My kids are very strong. They don't deserve this."
This is where shit gets way out of hand to me. It's a f'ing baseball game. The losers that are lashing out at his wife and kids are absolutely pathetic and need a serious reality check.

@FRPLG - Yeah I was pretty disappointed it ended in a loss as well but as long as the season doesn't come down to a one loss and we're out of the playoff hunt kinda thing I won't be too upset. I was more pissed at how horrible the call was, Berkman had his bat a foot over the plate, I mean really? A bat that far over the plate is not a successful checked swing.

@OTM: I can agree with that. But if instant replay gets expanded I'd like to see it expanded so that pretty much any bad call can be reviewed. Go the NFL route and give the managers 2 challenges to a bad call a game, and a third if both are correct. It won't happen but I'd like to see it happen.

@Matty: Definitely agree about how the situation was handled. Everything was classy all around except for how Selig dismissed it like it shouldn't even be a question. Props to Joyce for admitting it like a man and props to Galarraga for staying classy about it. If it was a big ego'd pitcher that it had happened to I'm sure his comments would've been in bad taste. And I also agree that people that attack his wife and kids really need some serious help. I understand that it would've been huge if it had happened but at the end of the day the kid will have plenty more chances to have the stars align and have another perfect game but attacking a man's wife and kids really shows how pathetic some people really are.