A surprising development has occured. Are they going back to change the record books to credit AG with a perfect game because of a blown call by umpire JJ? No..
In the meantime, probably few Tiger fans have noticed, or even cared, that Galarraga is with the Arizona Diamondbacks these days. Won 3, lost 4, and pitched a grand total of 42 innings with an ERA of 5.91. In his 5 year career, he's a sub-.500 pitcher. Not exactly the stuff legends are made of.
But every once in a while, an ordinary type athlete accomplishes something totally unforeseen, and even bordering on the incredible. Sure, they have to be fairly good to start with, but everything else has to fall in place perfectly, In other words, there's usually a lot of luck involved as well. It almost happened to Armando, but for that one blown call at first base.
Umpire Jim Joyce was vilified nationally, and I think it's a safe bet to say he didn't want to hang out in Detroit sports bars for a while. He acknowledged his mistake, and even tearfully apologized. That's all the guy could do, but some people will never let it rest.
Yet when it comes to umpires, who really knows them best? Would you concede it's probably the players?
According to a just-released poll by Sports Illustrated amongst major league players -- guess who they voted the best umpire by a wide margin?
Yep. Jim Joyce. The 2nd place guy got about half as many votes and nobody else was even close.
So maybe he blew a call in a freak game for a journeyman pitcher, and will live in infamy amongst Tiger fans forevermore.
But he must be getting a whole lot of other stuff right for (all) the players to rank him #1.
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