The genesis of the Joyce call was actually largely a fault that lies within us all but which should have been dealt with by those who supervise MLB umpires a long time ago: the tendency to get so caught up in routine and assumption that it often blinds one to what is actually occurring. It is why doing oral history can often be a dicey exercise and also a cause of eyewtiness testimony often being rather unreliable. 

So let's go back to that play and see what may have been going through Joyce's mind: there was a ground ball off the bat of Jason Donald hit far to the right of Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera, not a guy known as a defensive wizard. Joyce was stationed, as most umpires are, up the first base line so he can get a better look at potential extra base bids down the rightfield line. Donald was streaking up the line while the lumbering Galarraga was attempting to beat him to the bag. I think Joyce was surprised that Cabrera even got to the ball and may have assumed that he was unlikely to get Donald anyway. This was compounded by the fact that when Galarraga caught the ball, he ice cream coned it, thereby depriving Joyce of the "pop" in the glove they look for to determine whether the ball had arrived before the runner at first base or not. Indeed, Galarraga may have bobbled it and if he did Donald could have been safe. The replays are a admittedly ambiguous on that account, though. 

Making this even more difficult for Joyce was that due to the nature of the play: he couldn't really hustle closer to the bag for a better view without risking getting into Cabrera's throwing lane. If he had tried to move behind the line, he would have both likely obscured his view of the base and Donald's foot plus he would have been calling the play on the run, which is a bear in itself. So Joyce wasn't really out of position per se on the play. It was largely his own assumption coupled with how Galaragga caught the ball that resulted in the travesty of calling Donald safe. 

The unfortunate part of this as a baseball fan is the half assed coverage the media took to this. The ESPN replays didn't show Detroit skipper Jim Leyland protesting the call in the immediate aftermath of the faulty judgment, which, according to Yahoo Sports, he did. The press also apparently didn't ask any of the parties involved if the umpires were asked to get together and consult with each other on the controversial play, one that any idiot would recognize was going to live in baseball infamy for all time. None of the reporters also questioned where the second base umpire, the only other guy on the field who may have had any kind of view of the incident, was and what he thought about this. Just another day in the life of our lazy media, unfortunately. 

More importantly, I have yet to see the issue of the official scorer addressed. Who was he or she and couldn't they have given Galarraga an error (which you can make a valid argument for) to at least preserve the no hitter even if he wasn't going to get credit for a perfecto? If I were Selig and concerned about the image of the sport, I would have tried to persuade the official scorer to change his ruling from a hit to an error. That would have allayed at least some of the hostility the public is feeling.

Selig has rightly decided not to try to call it a perfect game by fiat, which would have opened a whole other can of worms, even as nauseating the injustice done to Galarraga is.

In any event, this underscores the need for more instant replay, which Selig has now been persuaded is necessary even after past incidents of gross umpiring incompetence. In fact, the same night as the robbery of Galarraga, the purportedly blown call by a second base umpire allowed the Seattle Mariners to escape with a walkoff victory. The real time replays I have seen of that occurrence were too close for me to not give it to the umpire, though.

But everybody will remember the abortion of a call on a potential sac fly in the Japan-U.S. game during the inaugural World Baseball Championship, where showboating shitbrain "Balking Bob" Davidson ruled that third base runner Tsuyoshi Nishioka had left the bag early when further examination disclosed that he didn't and it wasn't even close. That set off an international furor, with then Lotte skipper Bobby Valentine calling Davdson's presence in the tournament "a shame." Davidson's name is still mud in Japan. 

Then you had the Rockies winning a playoff game after outfielder Matt Holiday failed to touch home plate but was called safe anyway. And all this came in the wake of too many other ridiculous calls to count, like several where tags on runners near the first base line missed by two feet and were still called out. Umpires seem perpetually out of position on plays at the plate, too, as if they have no anticipation of how to get a good angle, instead trying to see things while positioning themselves a few feet up the first base line, which has given us many mistaken judgments. 

The one that really chaps my hide personally, though, are the calls on force plays at second base. ESPN gave a second baseman part of the credit for a web gem the other night even though he never touched the bag while in possession of the ball on what was ruled a double play. That neighborhood play and too many umpires seeing that force play as automatic and my suspicion that too many umpires overly favor the out call generally anyway because they can really style on it makes a farce of the game and calls into question the effort and training of the entire umpiring staff in MLB. 

And let's face it, too many umpires are also out there just flat guessing too much of the time. 

Then you seem to be seeing more and more umpires who feel that this is the WWF and who appear to be looking for confrontations. Umpire Jim Hahn was given a severe verbal reprimand for his actions in a game this past week, but the only thing that will work is to start suspending and firing umpires such as Jim West who appear to believe that fans come to see them.

As for plate umpiring, boy is that tough. You ought to try it sometime. Imagine you're some normal sized guy trying to see over a 6'4" 225 pound catcher. Moreover, everybody has days when they seem to be having trouble putting one foot in front of the other with enough coordination to stay upright. So plate umpires have the toughest officiating job in professional sports. But that doesn't excuse lack of hustle on plays at the plate, which we wtiness in overly excessive amounts. . 

If there is a positive arising out of Wednesday's incident, aside from the increased likelihood of more instant replay, is that Joyce will now take his place with Don Denkinger and Fred Merkle as the biggest boneheads in MLB history. I hope that will scare other umpires straight and make them resolve to step their performances up and it should coerce MLB to demand better out of its officials. 

Finally, kudos to Galarrage, Leyland and Joyce, all of whom handled this with tremendous class. I wouldn't have been near as cool about this as Galarraga if it was me going for a perfect game. And it likely would have gotten real ugly if I was Leyland since Selig is directly responsible for what happened Wednesday with his lax oversight of his umpires, provoking me to call for his resignation to take responsibility for what happened in the wake of Galarraga's denial of his just due and too many smiliar past instances of unpunished officiating incompetence. 

The fact is that MLB largely views the world like 1890's imperialists did. They want to move in, take it over and drain it of every last economic resource to add to what they already have at home. Treating the KBO or NPB or the CPBL like equals? Are you kidding?  What, are you a Communist? Bud Selig and his putative bosses are largely a bunch of boors who still contemplate the world through the prism of an era long gone by. This results in a lot of hurt feelings when MLB ventures overseas and opportunities are missed along with that. They haven't been willing to work with the sports fan base in the U.S. and have displayed a continual public relations tin ear (the satellite tv deal, maddening blackout policies and charging for content on MLB.com are three examples of counterproductive shortsightedness). So if they are that arrogant and dismissive toward the folks at home who make the existence of their teams possible, and you couple that with their exploitative outlook vis a vis foreign markets, then there is little motivation to use more diplomatic means to achieve their objectives. That bull in a china shop approach engenders resistance and resentment. 

This is where Valentine comes in. As much as Valentine's belief in himself turns some people off, he is usually right. Not only that, but he also knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em when it comes to business matters. Yeah, in the office, you're going to get a lot of unvarnished uh, how should I put this, frank opinion from him. But he will also be your greatest cheerleader if he believes in you. He is just trying to improve the organization, agree or disagree with him. 

But when it comes to organizing business transactions, Valentine, who is a businessman himself in addition to his job in baseball, has learned how to be a first class diplomat, a quality nobody, and I mean nobody, in MLB has with regard to Asia. He is willing to separate his immediate needs with what will facilitate the best result for everyone concerned because, if you don't help your business partners in Asia build face, you will soon find yourself hearing muzukashii a lot (which is how Japanese, who prefer indirection, say, "nope, not going to happen;" the word itself literally means, "that's difficult") or Korean or Mandarin equivalents to it. By managing in Japan and learning how to work the language and business angles there in addition to his success in the dugout, he has become something of a cult figure. Bobby now has face in Japan, Jim Small does not. He has learned patience because change moves slowly in Japan due to Japanese being naturally risk averse. Negotiations are set up through back channels, opinions aired and details knocked out before the actual public meeting happens so that everybody knows what is going to happen, which means nobody gets hung out to dry and loses face. MLB's stance is more confrontational and typically western, which Asians tend to find rude and insulting. 

Valentine not only has face though, he is kao ga hiroi, which means he pretty much knows, or has a working knowledge of, anybody who is anybody in Japanese baseball and just his name will get him through many doors that would be closed to other MLB execs. Similarly, most of those same rules apply in Korea, too. China and Taiwan are harder nuts to crack and their business cultures much rowdier and byztantine. But because the CPBL knows Valentine through what he has done with the Chiba Lotte Marines he already carries with him respect from them that any other MLB person would not. 

So even as he might have engendered some antipathy for being so outspoken in the U.S., he knows when to change his attitude and massage the other parties to get something done in business matters. The fact is, too, that MLB needs to start helping NPB, the KBO and the CPBL market themselves in the U.S. to allay fears in some quarters in Japan that MLB is trying to destroy their local leagues. MLB has no idea how to do that. Valentine, with his enthusiasm for the Japanese game, could help make that happen in a big way and not only would Japanese baseball benefit, but so would baseball fans everywhere. It could also be that he could nudge the fossils that run NPB into a kind of glasnost (though that is EXTREMELY optimistic) so that quality of play in that league will improve to the extent that, at some point in the near future, it will become just as good as MLB.

A strong rival foreign league would make baseball here all the more intriguing plus it would get Asian-Americans more involved in the sport in the states. It is perverse that while MLB teams have catered to the Japanese tourist trade, they have done little or no marketing to Asian-Americans in the U.S. That has to change. Again, Valentine's experience gives him the feel for doing that Selig and his minions could only dream of.

Look: MLB has a history of appointing complete nincompoops to be its frontman. From racist and laughably incompetent Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis to General William Eckert, who didn't know a baseball from a hole in the ground, to plodding dope Bowie Kuhn and uber-douchebag Selig, this has long seemed to be a position that goes to graduates of clown colleges than actual baseball people with good business judgment and public relations savvy. With Bobhy Valentine, there is a historic opportunity to name someone who has a perfect storm of experience and disposition to guide baseball into a new era. Wouldn't it be great if MLB didn't fuck it up for once?

Besides, it would be fun to see Steve Phillips, the metrosexual attention whore who didn't get along with Valentine because everything had to be about The Steve, spit out the words "commissioner Bobby Valentine" like Gollum on Baseball Tonight? Please, let it come to pass!