Tag Archives: Armando Galarraga

Umpire makes Really Bad Call……or Does He?

Wow!  Take a look at this.  You won’t believe it.  This makes that Jim Jarvis call on the Armando Galarraga play look like play-doh!   Unfortunately, it’s another reason for the instant replay pundits to continue beating their drums.   I’m not a fan of instant replay, but I have to admit I sometimes wonder if maybe Selig might, just once in a while, override a call.  You know, like maybe once or twice a year? 

The call was made by umpire Jerry Meals during the 19th Inning of the Atlanta Braves vs Pittsburgh Pirates game last night, giving Atlanta the win by a score of 4-3. The Braves’ runner, Julio Lugo, was clearly out as seen in the video and appears to be as surprised as the catcher was at the call.  I guess Jerry Meals wanted to go back to his hotel room and either sleep or eat a meal since it was already 2am in Atlanta.

The blog title’s a little skewed since I’m sure the runner thought the umpire made a fabulous call as did a lot of the  Braves fans.  It depends a lot on your perspective, doesn’t it?  Videos and some of the commentary  provided from D’Wizzle’s World, a Yardbarker network.

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MLB Bans Jim Joyce from Calling Galarraga Games!

I wrote a post last June entitled “Umpire ~ Toughest Job in Baseball“.   It was about the call Jim Joyce made on an Armando Galarraga throw to first that cost the pitcher the “perfect game”.   So when I read Craig Calcaterra’s headlines today I thought of the many games Joyce has called in the past year where Galarraga  has played and the games went without a hitch ~ smooth as silk. 

Today is the first anniversary of that infamous call and I have to say this made for a great headline!   It seems that the umpire and pitcher have entered a business venture and co-authored a book together.    The name of the book is “Nobody’s Perfect” . It was published last month and is available on Amazon

Some of the comments on Calcaterra’s blog this morning were pretty entertaining.   One mentioned an extreme dislike for a few of MLB’s umpires and suggested letting  every owner and GM in the game co-author a book and have their least favorite umpires write a chapter on the nuances of umpiring, country music, dieting, whatever, thereby eliminating them from umpiring “any” game.   After watching two really, really bad calls last night during the Cardinals-Giants game I understand what they’re saying.  Probably not a really good idea, but I get it.   Unfortunately the calls were made by two different umps so the blogger’s rationale isn’t very sound.  Eventually there wouldn’t be anyone left to call the games! 

Hmm…. you just know a movie about the two is in the works.   Wonder who’ll play Armando?   Better yet!  Who in the world could possibly play Jim Joyce?   I can see it now;  “And the award for best actor goes to ……… Jim Joyce for playing  ………. “Jim Joyce”! 

All in fun.  It’s great to see a friendly and working relationship between these two special men, and I hope the entire baseball community will embrace this as well.

2010 Sports Illustrated “Year in Sports”

I thought this article was interesting probably because I’d already blogged on several of  the top 10 items as they happened( See my previous blogs on the Giants, Jim JoyceStephen Strasburg, the Managers and the players salaries).   This article from Sports Illustrated was well written and I wanted to share it with you.   GFBB
Written by:  Al Tielemans, Sports Illustrated December 22, 2010

1. A title for San Francisco. The Giants won their first World Series since 1954, but their first since moving from New York to San Francisco for the 1958 season. After torturous World Series defeats in 1962 (losing Game 7 to the Yankees with the winning run on base), 1989 (when an earthquake struck before Game 3) and 2002 (losing a potential Game 6 clincher after holding a five-run lead with nine outs to go), San Francisco rolled through the postseason on the strength of dominant homegrown pitching and a sprinkling of long-awaited good fortune. The Giants secured six of their 11 postseason wins without scoring more than three runs. Six games out of first place as late as Aug. 22, the Giants’ 32-15 run to the title Continue reading