I am sure most of you by now either have heard and/or seen how pitcher Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers was deprived of achieving one of the rarest feats in baseball, pitching a perfect game. He was not deprived by his walking a batter, and neither did the gem elude him by his hitting a batter or by his teammates committing an error. No, he lost his masterpiece (but not the game) this past Wednesday evening when first base umpire Jim Joyce ruled Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians safe at first following 26 consecutive outs. It was, unfortunately, an erroneous call, a call even admitted to being wrong later by Joyce himself. I respect Mr. Joyce for being man enough to admit he made a mistake, which is rather unprecedented when it comes to Major League Baseball’s umpires, and he has genuinely been very distraught over what has transpired, even tearing up the very next day when Galarraga presented him with the lineup card at home plate and patting Joyce on the back. I do not know of any other umpire in Major League Baseball ever admitting immediately following a game that he had made a mistake. Former Major League Baseball umpire Don Denkinger knows he was mistaken about a call he made that went against the Cardinals back in the 1985 World Series, but he did not admit to it publicly until much later.
In a sport that has suffered much from its own self-inflicted wounds due to the stain of the steroid era hovering over it the past dozen years or so, there have been some very good stories coming out of all of this unfortunate incident. We have already mentioned the humility and honesty exhibited by Jim Joyce, both highly commendable qualities, but pitcher Armando Galarraga has been the epitome of a good sport about the whole thing. Even when the call went against him, all he did was smile without saying a word of protest. His pat of encouragement given to Joyce to following day was also very touching, no pun intended, as even the Detroit home crowd was giving Joyce applause when his name was announced, causing Joyce to break down as he fully expected to be greeted by merciless boos and catcalls. But does this not just prove once again how God’s word proves to be true? What does the Bible tell us about those who show true humility? “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you” (James 4:10 [RSV]).
I could be wrong, but I do not believe Jim Joyce will go down in history as the umpire who blew the perfect game. I do not believe Armando Galarraga will go down in history as the pitcher who had a perfect game taken away from him. No, I believe Joyce will be remembered for his “manning up” and taking responsibility immediately, and humbling himself before others. And I believe Galarraga will go down in history as being the man who showed such great class, sportsmanship and love to a fellow human being who was suffering, when the easy thing to do would have been for him to point the finger of blame at Joyce and kick him while he was down. I cannot help but think that somewhere Satan is disappointed greatly right about now.
In a sport that has suffered much from its own self-inflicted wounds due to the stain of the steroid era hovering over it the past dozen years or so, there have been some very good stories coming out of all of this unfortunate incident. We have already mentioned the humility and honesty exhibited by Jim Joyce, both highly commendable qualities, but pitcher Armando Galarraga has been the epitome of a good sport about the whole thing. Even when the call went against him, all he did was smile without saying a word of protest. His pat of encouragement given to Joyce to following day was also very touching, no pun intended, as even the Detroit home crowd was giving Joyce applause when his name was announced, causing Joyce to break down as he fully expected to be greeted by merciless boos and catcalls. But does this not just prove once again how God’s word proves to be true? What does the Bible tell us about those who show true humility? “Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you” (James 4:10 [RSV]).
I could be wrong, but I do not believe Jim Joyce will go down in history as the umpire who blew the perfect game. I do not believe Armando Galarraga will go down in history as the pitcher who had a perfect game taken away from him. No, I believe Joyce will be remembered for his “manning up” and taking responsibility immediately, and humbling himself before others. And I believe Galarraga will go down in history as being the man who showed such great class, sportsmanship and love to a fellow human being who was suffering, when the easy thing to do would have been for him to point the finger of blame at Joyce and kick him while he was down. I cannot help but think that somewhere Satan is disappointed greatly right about now.
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