Kill the Ump!
By Wink
Do you know what a ‘perfect game’ is in baseball? This occurs when one team has all 27 batters (3 per inning, times nine innings) retired in order.
The very finest pitchers, even at the peak of their careers, know they will probably never throw a perfect game.
If a batter reaches base in any way the perfect game is out the window. Any hit or walk or hit-by-pitch ends it. A fielder misplaying a grounder or fly ball ends it.
To say that a perfect game a ‘statistical anomaly’ is more than a bit of an understatement. This has only happened 20 times in the entire history of the major leagues. (The real anomaly is that it has already happened twice this year)
This type of sporting event is so significant that, if a pitcher anywhere in the country, is five-plus innings into a perfect game, word spreads nationwide almost instantly.
And so it was on June 2 of this year. Armando Galarraga, a previously unheralded pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, was on the verge of earning the 21st ever perfect game. ESPN was not televising this game but, for the final few innings, kept cutting to the game to show every pitch Galarraga threw live.
Sports fans across the country were hanging on each moment, and calling their friends to alert them to tune in to ESPN
Baseball has lots of goofy superstitions. When a pitcher has a no-hitter going, after about 5 innings the rest of the team will refuse to talk to the pitcher as long as the no-hitter lasts. I suppose this is so no teammate ‘jinxes’ the pitcher. A perfect game is the ultimate no-hitter. We have to imagine it was pretty quiet in the Tiger dugout….
Fans have no such restriction however, and those in the stands at the game were going gaga with every pitch.
They, along with the rest of the country, were counting down…. “He just needs four more outs…. three more outs… two more outs…. ONE MORE OUT!! HE JUST NEEDS TO GET THIS GUY OUT!!!
HERE IT IS… A SLOW ROLLER TO THE FIRST BASEMAN… HE SCOOPS IT UP AND THROWS IT TO THE PITCHER WHO IS COVERING FIRST AND….
Well, you know the rest. Umpire Jim Joyce thought, incorrectly, that the ball was not caught in time, so he called the runner ‘safe.’
A blown call. No perfect game. Not even a no-hitter. Nothing. History erased.
There are plenty of hotheads in professional sports, and baseball probably has a higher percentage than most.
I would not have been shocked if Galarraga ‘went off’ on the umpire.
Screaming, kicking dirt and throwing things are all part of baseball. It is distasteful, but routine.
Here was Galarraga’s immediate response to the blown call.
I hereby declare Armando Galarraga “Sportsman of the Year” for his charming response to an otherwise catastrophic disappointment.
For some reason, Major League umpires are protected from post-game press scrutiny. No one is allowed to ask them questions. Jim Joyce spoke to the press anyway. His apology was profuse and heartbreaking. You could feel his anguish at having made such an errant call.
His admission was actually historic. Umpires NEVER admit they made a bad call.
So Winkest Link also offers our highest level kudos to umpire Jim Joyce.
Thank you both for bringing ‘sportsmanship’ back to sports.
