I think the loneliest person in the world tonight is Jim Joyce. The 21-year vet umpire of the MLB mistakenly robbed Armando Galarraga of the third perfect game in less than a month. With two outs in the ninth, Indians infielder Jason Donald grounded one to the right side of the infield. Miguel Cabrera made a great defensive play and quickly got it to a covering Galarraga at first. Joyce made the quick "washout" motion to indicate that the perfect game bid was indeed over. Unfortunately for Galarraga, and for Joyce, replay indicated that Donald was clearly out at first.
I'm not sure who I feel worse for. Galarraga must have gone into the clubhouse and gone on a tirade (or fainted) after watching the infamous replay. But I still think I feel worse for Joyce. The guy is probably going to second guess himself for the rest of his career. He'll probably lose several days' sleep over this call to add to it. I can't even imagine what was going through the minds of Tigers fans as they watched in real-time and the on the replay. If that had happened to Clay or Lester on the final "out" of their no-no's, I literally can't even imagine what my reaction would be.
Hopefully Galaragga, Joyce, and the Tiger fans won't let this mistake linger for too long, especially Joyce. I think he was just trying to prevent perfect games from going out of style. I mean, who the hell wants to see three of those things in a month? Talk about getting old. I'm on your side, Jim, lets keep perfect games few and far between, it's easier to enjoy them that way!
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