Umpire Jim Joyce wiped away tears as he took the field, a day after his blown call cost Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.
Joyce and Galarraga met at home plate Thursday afternoon as the pitcher presented the umpire with the Tigers’ lineup card. Joyce shook hands with Galarraga and patted him on the shoulder.
Joyce has admitted missing a call at first base Wednesday night on what would’ve been the final out. The veteran ump personally apologized to Galarraga after the game and hugged him.Following the game I wrote:
A month ago Galarraga was in the minors; if he had gotten the perfecto, he would've been (rather creepily) the third pitcher to throw a perfect game in a month, after MLB took about 134 years to get to 18. Now, he and Joyce can spend years and years at memorabilia shows making a zillion dollars signing this photo like Branca/Thomson.All these years later I was right; were it not for the dramatic bad call, we'd never have heard Galarraga's name again. But here we are, 10 years later with article after article marking the anniversary:
But the call also made Galarraga, and Joyce, forever famous. Dallas Braden wasn't given a tricked-out new Corvette. Phil Humber didn't get to present at the nationally televised ESPYs. Nobody writes anniversary stories on Charlie Robertson's perfect game.The Galarraga-Joyce story has been told countless times, in countless publications, and from countless perspectives — and especially recently, with Tuesday marking the 10-year anniversary of when one call robbed a 28-year-old from Venezuela his rightful perfect game, but ended up affording him so much more.Galarraga's name, that sly smile, that exceptional empathy, almost immediately after Joyce's arms went up beyond the bag at first — now all that, baseball fans will never forget."You know what," said Galarraga, "I've been lucky to be not lucky, if that makes any sense."
Fantastic article, highly recommended by moi.
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