Here’s the one indisputable fact regarding umpire Jim Joyce’s “safe” call on Jason Donald’s already-infamous grounder Wednesday night, which ruined Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga’s perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning: It was wrong. Cleveland’s Donald was out by about a half-step, according to the replay, and should have been the 27th consecutive batter retired in a perfect game by Galarraga. Instead, Joyce flung his arms out to either side of his body to indicate Donald was safe. With that one gesture began an assortment of calls for instant replay’s expansion in baseball, a Commissioner’s reversal, an official scoring change and the suspension of Joyce.
“This is not the time to stick to the rules,” Keith Olbermann writes, calling for Commissioner Bud Selig to proclaim Galarraga’s gem a perfect game. “The rules failed the sport tonight.”
“In the history of sports rulings, you aren’t going to find too many worse than this,” the Miami Herald’s Dan LeBetard writes.
Yahoo’s Jeff Passan crafts a timely parallel in his argument for increased use of instant replay in baseball, bringing up Philadelphia’s Wednesday night NHL win. “On the same night referees in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals used replay to reverse a missed call and gave the Philadelphia Flyers a goal,” Passan writes, “baseball let its technology rot on something as infrequent as boundary calls on home runs.”
Joyce, voted by players in a 2006 Sports Illustrated poll as the game’s second-best umpire, admitted after the game that he blew the call. “There’s nobody that feels worse than I do,” Joyce said. “I took a perfect game away from that kid over there who worked his (butt) off all night.”
Joyce even went so far as to apologize to Galarraga and give him a teary hug after the game. Yes, he cost Galarraga a chance at immortality—only 20 perfect games have been thrown in Major League history (25 players, in contrast, have hit 500 or more home runs)—but he has been admirably honest and contrite and even somehow comes across as a tragic character in all of this.
Joyce’s solid resumé and post-game contrition bring up memories of the NFL’s Ed Hochuli, who made a game-altering gaffe in 2008 during a Chargers-Broncos game that culminated in him personally answering angry letters from fans who found his e-mail address online.
“Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling,” Hochuli told ESPN at the time. “Officials strive for perfection — I failed miserably.”
Cleveland manager Manny Acta suggested to MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince that all this controversy might have been avoided had Miguel Cabrera—who converted from third to first base last year—kept fielding fundamentals in mind and allowed second baseman Carlos Guillen to field the Donald grounder. “We’ve been preaching to our first basemen, starting in spring training, that a soft ball to your right, you break to the bag and try to take the pitcher out of the play.”
In an interesting side note, had he called Donald out, this would have been Joyce’s second perfect game of the season. He was the second-base umpire for Dallas Braden’s perfect game in May.
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Overshadowed by the controversy in Detroit was the sudden retirement of Seattle’s Ken Griffey, Jr., a sure-bet Hall of Famer who played in 13 All-Star games, was the American League MVP in 1997 and was fifth on the all-time home run list, with 630. While other sports superstars were hit with recent claims of sleeping with adult film stars, Griffey’s worst transgression was allegedly sleeping in the clubhouse during a game.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea writes that Griffey leaves the game with a clean record and conscience. “While others juiced up to bulk up to power up, Griffey was nowhere to be found among the positive tests, grand jury testimonies, FBI investigations, Mitchell Report names and Jose Canseco books.”
Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci calls Griffey the “DiMaggio of his time” and notes that Griffey’s retirement comes exactly 75 years to the day of Babe Ruth’s. “Griffey gave us as sublime a picture of how baseball should be played,” Verducci writes.
The staff at Techblog pulled together the ten best commercials featuring Griffey. It’s a unique reminder of just how much talent he had.
For all Griffey accomplished in his career, many will remember him just as well for his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card. In 2008, Darren Rovell opined on what it meant to baseball and the hobby of card collecting. “When Griffey welcomed collectors to the very first Upper Deck set,” Rovell writes, “investment was just about to trump fun in the card world.”
The shame in all the calls for Griffey’s release or retirement over the past month is that he always seemed to be having fun playing the game in seasons past. “Long ago, baseball took away his legs. Over the past two years, it claimed his bat speed. Then came the death knell: It conquered his joy,” writes Jerry Brewer of the Seattle Times. Brewer’s colleague, Bob Condotta, puts Griffey’s retirement in perspective, noting that this is the first summer Griffey can spend with his kids.
For all the home runs and “sweet swing” memories, Griffey’s fun and loose approach to the game can best be summed up in two recent episodes: During a game in 2007, he tossed a heckling Dodgers fan a brown paper bag with an XXL jockstrap inside of it as a joke and instantly turned the fan’s loyalties; and last July, as a tribute to Michael Jackson, Griffey batted with one gloved hand.
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The NBA Playoffs kick off tonight in Los Angeles, as the Lakers host the Celtics.
“These teams are the NBA’s aristocracy,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Scott Cushing writes. “There is no little guy.”
Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News tracks down Celtic’s President Red Auerbach’s daughter, Randy, an independent film producer living in L.A. Even with her new home, her loyalties still lie with the Celtics. “I’d rather see the Lakers lose than the Celtics win,” she says. “It’s a rivalry thing.”
Fanhouse’s Tom Lorenzo reports that, no matter who wins, FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann won’t consider the winner to be the World Champions. “There’s a world out there that has caught up [to the US] and the real World Champion is currently Spain,” says Mr. Baumann
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For fans of the sports/fashion fusion niche, a trip to Nike’s 255 Studio in lower Manhattan could yield a few new additions to the wardrobe. Trend-tracking website PSFK reveals that Nike has paired with the No Mas fashion design team to create bespoke sports-themed clothes based on world baseball designs. Shoppers can meet with a consultant to create wholly customized Nike goods. It’s basically a British suit-maker’s approach to athletic gear that hasn’t been attempted before.
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