Sorts of Sports

The Big Cat

Jim Joyce prevented Armando Galarraga from doing something that has only been done by 20 other players in MLB and yet two other pitchers this year. But before we jump on Jim Joyce, maybe we should break it all down and at the end, thank him.

I wrote a story about bad pitchers throwing perfect games when Dallas Braden threw his a month ago. I think a perfect game is something sacred and guys like Armando should not be throwing them. It would be more of a testament of luck if 3 guys did it in one year and one of them was Galarraga. Armando has been shuffled back and forth from the minors throughout his career and this season. He has a career record of 21-18 with an ERA of 4.50. If he throws a perfect game then it is just as likely that anyone can hit the lottery….

Aside from my biased about who should be able to throw a perfect game, let’s look at the video and assess what prevented Galarraga from achieving perfection.

1- The hitter: Jason Donald is in just his 15^th career game this season and is batting a solid .280 in 54 plate appearances. Donald has some speed, going 46 for 58 (79%) in stolen bases in the minor leagues while grounding into just 36 double plays in 4 years. He’s no Ricky Henderson, but he is no David Ortiz either. The kid is young and will hustle, especially on this type of play.

2- The pitch: A 1-1 pitch and you should just pitch to contact, aka a fastball, instead of throwing an 85-mph slider. It is the 9^th inning and you need one more out. What is the catcher doing putting down 2 fingers? Throw The Heat young feller, just as Sal from Rookie of the Year.

3- The fielder: Ball is hit over to the right side, Carlos Guillen Miguel Cabrera goes to field the ball and toss it to first. Why is Miguel Cabrera playing second base? Wait, he is playing first but suddenly had the reflexes to make it 45 feet away from the bag to make a play. Let Guillen field this and we don’t have a pitcher running to cover the bag and ask if he did or didn’t touch the bag etc. Cabrera career fielding % is .951 and Guillen is .966. Cabrera has never played a game at second while Guillen has played 18 games in his career with a perfect fielding percentage.

4- The Call: What is Jim Joyce looking at? Watch is head…. Watch it…… oh he is watching the ball and not the bag. He watched the ball the whole time. Maybe he wanted some popcorn too? Stop being a spectator and do your job. Look, I’ve umpired and the rules tell you to get in position and find the bag. Joyce does not spot the bag until Donald is 1 step away. How can he possibly pick everything up? Was he scratching his head wondering what Cabrera was doing a mile from the bag on a routine ground ball?

5- The Reaction: Did Gallaraga pull a Jack Donaghy and go through the 5 steps of denial in .2 seconds? How do you sit there with a stoic look on your face and not get in Joyce’s face like Roberto Alomar? I mean Gerald Laird came out and voiced his opinion. When do bench players come out, get in the umpires face, and nothing happens? Truly amazing.

There is no way Bud Selig could have reversed this call. It would have established grounds to go back and change all calls that were bad and all calls in the future that were bad. Selig did not overrule on CC Sabathia’s one-hitter that the scorer ruled a hit versus an error in which CC dropped while playing for the Brewers. It is part of the game and a perfect game requires that the umpires be perfect, too. Thankfully Joyce was not perfect and Galarraga will be forgotten about until the next perfect game is thrown next week.