The Face of Sportsmanship

Should Jim Joyce feel a little embarrassed? Yea, probably. Should he admit his mistake, as he did? Yea, that was nice. But for all the things Jim Joyce did in the aftermath of his blown call that cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game, none of it would have meant anything to the guy without the actions of the man he robbed of history. I think I speak for most fans when I say that I would have absolutely gone-off if I saw the washout signal from Joyce that night, and I don't think that it would be an unreasonable action. But Galarraga, instead, chose to show us all what true character and sportsmanship are made of.

Instead of throwing his glove or getting in the veteran umpire's face, Galarraga just stood at first base and smiled. I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's the Venezuelan descent, but for some reason Galarraga immediately understood that baseball is just a game. He somehow found light in the situation. He knew he had been denied history, and yet, while Tigers manager Jim Leyland barked at Joyce, Galarraga just sat by, silent...waiting to complete the shutout. After managing to get the 28th batter he faced to ground out, Galarraga went into the clubhouse and "sipped a beer" to help chill his nerves. Not nerves of anger, but nerves of excitement from realizing how close he came to perfection.

After the game, Joyce was allegedly moved to tears when he finally saw the replay. He made a tearful apology to Galarraga and the Tigers' clubhouse, but again, it would have meant nothing to him if the Venezuelan hurler wasn't so compassionate towards the guy. Again, instead of lashing out and throwing a fit, Galarraga simply hugged the shaken umpire and told him that all was forgiven, that he understood the nature of human-error in baseball.

Move onto today's game. Instead of Leyland carrying out the lineup card to the home-plate umpire (Joyce's position today), Galarraga took it upon himself to do the honors. While Tiger fans, and the rest of the sports world for that matter, doesn't appear ready to move on and let Joyce's mistake go, Galarraga wanted it to be known that he had put the matter behind him and forgiven the long-time umpire.

While Joyce has several tough months ahead of him, both mentally and publicly, the actions and sympathies of sports' most classy act have certainly helped the healing process. Armando Galarraga might be a mediocre pitcher on most nights, but he's shown that he's a class-act even on his worst night.