Last night, Armando Galaragga of the Detroit Tigers was one out away from pitching a perfect game, one of the rarest accomplishments in all of sports. In the 100+ years of professional baseball, such a feat has only occurred 20 times. However, on this night, fate would tell a different story as veteran umpire Jim Joyce blew a call at first base on the final out that robbed Galaragga of his perfect night. With lack of instant replay, the call could not be overturned.
Tough to watch. But if anything positive can be drawn from such a situation, it was the way both Galaragga and Joyce handled the situation afterwards. Galarragga could have yelled and screamed about how he was robbed of perfection and Joyce could have gone and hidden from the situation, standing by his call and avoid speaking to the media. But that was not the case here.
After seeing that he was wrong with his call, Joyce immediately apologized to Galaragga, admitting his fault and how truly sorry he was for his missed call. He spoke to the media immediately after the game, sharing that same remorse…
We are a forgiving society. If you get out in front of the issue, genuinely show your remorse right after the incident, society will generally forgive you and move on with their lives.
The public will certainly be angry at Joyce for the call, but in the 24 hour news cycle, it’ll eventually pass. Today, this story was on every major sports and news show. Along with rehashing the botched call, all of those shows also mentioned Joyce’s remorse and apology.
While it was heartbreaking to watch young Armando Galaragga lose his unique place in MLB history, kudos to both Galaragga and Joyce on how they handled the situation directly after the game. Class acts all around.
Matt Saler is an Account Executive. Contact him at matt@maroonpr.com
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