Should Bud Selig Overturn Jim Joyce's Call?

[M's_Fan]

I would just say that it wasn't such a bad call if you put yourself in Joyce's shoes. The ball never hit the meat of the glove to make the audible "whack". Instead, it bounced around a little bit. Without the sound to compare to, you go off of what you see, which isn't easy at all. So I disagree with the view that it was an easy call. He was clearly safe from the replay, but it was not such an easy call, in my opinion.

Also, I heard an umpire on the radio today say that umpires rarely conference over a first base call like that. One ump is in position, and the other umps hardly ever conference and overturn a call like that.

[nolemmings]

It was an easy call in the sense that Joyce never claimed he considered a bobble, and never considered a swipe foot tag that might have missed the base. He claimed he was convinced that the runner beat the throw. The call was gross incompetence.

[nolemmings]

BTW, I don't put that much stock in Joyce's contriteness, especially as he had little choice in t he face of the evidence. To me he can apologize until he's blue in the face, he should still be suspended. Please don't give me that everyone makes mistakes schtick. This was the final out of a ballgame, and a potential perfect game. His attention should have been as acute or morseo than any other time in the game. His job was simple, and he blew the call. There should be consequences, remorseful or not as he might be.

If you are in an important position for your company or, better still, your profession and, at the height of an important decision, you blow it, you should expect to be fired or disciplined in some fashion. Period. If you don't like the pressure of being in that position, find another line of work. Bottom line, you embarrassed the game. Man up and apologize--fine, you did. Now man up and take some punishment too.

I'm not saying the guy should be accosted in the streets, his kids ridiculed at school or his pension taken away, but that call was inexcusable and incompetent, and he should be penalized for it (BTW, he flat out blew another call in the 8th that led to 2 Tiger runs--is this guy horseblip or what?). Seems like some time off without pay might help him become more focused and disciplined, if not, move on and let someone else do the job.

[ctownboy]

For those who say Selig does NOT have the power to overturn the cal, I say BS!!!

The Commish has the power to ban guys for life (Jackson, Cicotte, Rose, etc).

The Commish has the power to overturn trades (Vida Blue to the Reds, other Oakland A's to different teams).

The Commish has the power to suspend All Star Games.

If the Commish can do all of those things, which can affect more than one person and more than one season then he can EASILY overturn a CORRECTABLE call.

David

[ctownboy]

For those who say the Pine Tar incident doesn't count. Well, yes it does.

Brett was reinstated because the Yankees KNEW his bat had too much pine tar on it but did NOT tell the Umpires when they first knew about it. Nope, they waited until he did something which negatively affected them to alert the Umpires about it. The Ump then ruled Brett Out and then the AL President reinstated him and ruled the last four Outs to be replayed.

Notice how an AL President ruled on something important like this and NOT the Commish.

Also notice how four Outs of a game had to be replayed which could have resulted in a different ending.

Changing the Hit to an Out (the correct call) would NOT affect the outcome or ending of that game.

David

[ctownboy]

For those who say that if the ruling were changed for this game then they might also ahve to go back and change things like the 1985 WOrld Series, I say WRONG!!!!

Even though they had the technology for replays back then, there was NO RULE in the books concerning the use of instant replay. Now, however, there IS a rule for use of instant replay (concerning Home Runs) and since there has been precedent set for changing outcomes of games based on those replays, it is MUCH easier for Selig to make this (correct) change.

The reason he doesn't is because he does NOT have the balls to do it.

In 1993, the Commish's Office ruled that steroids and other PED's were against the rules but the Players Union didn't agree. Selig had a LONG time to stand up to the Union but DIDN'T. It took Congress getting into the act before the Players Union budged and made the playing field mroe fair again.

Selig is against instant replay. So when a call like this comes about (one that HAVING instant replay would keep him from having to rule on) he wusses out and just says no to changing a ruling.

SPINELESS!!!

Now Galarraga never gets into the record books as having thrown a perfect game and Joyce has to forever live with people reminding him he screwed up.

Don Denkinger and his Wife was interviewed about the missed call in the 1985 World Series and they talked about the hate mail and threatening phone calls they received afterward, some more than a year after the incident happened. They also talked about people remembering him blowing the call years after it happened (when they met him in person).

Heck, ESPN is bringing it up NOW, 25 years after it happened.

David

[calvindog]

The easy route would be for Selig to reverse the call as that is what the public is clamoring for. Selig did the right thing here.

[JP]

Denkinger's call was nothing like this one, to me. That world series play was bang-bang. This one was BANG (pause a beat or two) bang. A no doubt out. I think Galarraga, Joyce, and the fans of baseball would like to see this reversed. So if no one loses out, why not switch it now?