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Unforgivable

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Jim Joyce ought to just fucking "retire" right now. His call taking away a deserved perfect game from Armando Galarraga simply beggars description. And let's get this clear up front: This was not a "controversial" call. This was to a normal baseball call what Charles Manson is to proper etiquette. This was an abortion of a call; an "I wonder was arsenic tastes like" call; a "kerosene works, why not gasoline?" call. To name this as "controversial" is to give way too much credit to the umpire. This wasn't close. This wasn't a "bang-bang" play or a 50/50 situation.

So when Paul White in USA Today writes:

Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers came within one out -- and maybe one inch -or less -- of the third perfect game in the major leagues this season.


...this is pretty much the definition of journalistic fraud. This gives the false impression the play was close. It wasn't. Jason Donald was out by a good step and a half, and Donald knew it too. You could see on his face that he was horrified that Joyce had called him safe.

I am livid. The job of umpires is to protect the integrity of the game, and Jim Joyce just took a big hairy dump on it. Joyce stole something from Galarraga, from the history of the game, and from every fan of the sport.

It is truly unforgivable.
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