Human: Born to Make Mistakes

I was all prepared to write about how the Florida Marlins are getting 500 million dollars to build their new stadium but are charging fans FULL price to a baseball game that occurred IN THE PAST.  Instead, as I sat down to write it, this occurred:

Armando Galarraga, pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, had just retired 26 batters in a row.  The 25th out was an amazing over-the-shoulder fly ball catch that preserved the perfect game (at the time).  The lifetime 18-17 pitcher with a 4.62 ERA was one out from history. That is, until Umpire Jim Joyce made a call that will live in infamy.

On what would have been the 27th out and given Galarraga a Perfect Game (the 3rd in a month in Major League Baseball), Joyce called the baserunner safe.   In regular speed, it was a questionable call at best.  In slow motion, it was an AWFUL call.  No one disputes that.  Even with the slight bobble by Galarraga, the ball never left the webbing of the glove and his foot clearly hit the bag a full step before the runner.

The internet exploded after that.  ESPN analysts, bloggers, Facebook and Twitter users quickly spoke, and came down hard on Joyce. People (including me) wondered aloud on Twitter if Bud Selig would overturn the call in the best interest of baseball or whether the official scorer would overrule the out call and change the scoring to an Error, which would give Galarrage a no-hitter (but not a perfect game).

I then stumbled upon a tweet sent out by my friend Mike Goldstein of ESPN 760 AM (West Palm Beach):


@Mike_Goldstein Jim Joyce: http://twurl.nl/gmzpw1 i think this actually makes me like him quite a bit. amazing that he knew it was wrong immediately.

After listening to his interview, I began feeling more and more sympathetic towards Joyce.  Umpires never show their emotions, and when they do, they usually deny making mistakes.  Yet, in this six minute radio interview after the game, he sounded as remorseful and upset as any umpire or referee I've ever heard.  

While I was watching this, the following lyrics from a 1986 Human League song came into my head:

I'm Only Human,
Of Flesh and Blood I'm Made
Human,

Born to Make Mistakes

Instead of a Perfect Game, we are once again reminded that no one is perfect.  Credit to Joyce for apologizing to Galarraga; credit to Galarraga for not going ballistic at the time of the call and for already accepting Galarraga's apology.

The biggest loser in all of this? The Marlins, who were all set to purchase unused Detroit Tigers tickets following the game had the correct call been made.