Unrepentant Incompetence

Back in June, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was on the brink of history, one batter away from hurling a perfect game. Cleveland Indians shortstop Jason Donald tapped a grounder to first baseman Miguel Cabrera who fielded the ball and flipped to Galarraga covering first base as Donald raced down the line. The play was close, but the batter was out and history was made.

Except umpire Jim Joyce blew the call. And Galarraga lost his perfect game... and no-hitter.

What happened afterwards would be a shining example of good sportsmanship from Joyce, Galarraga and Tigers manager Jim Leyland. Joyce, upon realizing his mistake, was distressed, the Detroit News reported:

Joyce was so emotionally smashed by his mistake he could do nothing after the game but pace back and forth, arms crossed against his chest, savaging himself and saying through wet eyes, "I took a perfect game from that kid... He arrived back at Comerica Park two hours before the Tigers and Indians were to again tangle Thursday. His name by now had become internationally known, and not for the better. Joyce was still in tatters, emotionally, as he stood outside the umpire's clubhouse, choking his way through remarks.

After the initial rancor, fans began to sympathize with Joyce and then later applauded his integrity in owing up to his mistake. As the gracious Galarraga pointed out,"Nobody's perfect" and Joyce made a mistake which he took responsibility for and it was a mistake he clearly was not flippant about missing. Nobody felt worse about the error than Joyce himself, and after a while, even the most fervent Tigers fans were hoping that Joyce would cut himself some slack.

On the flip side, there are those in life and in the sporting world that are the antithesis of Jim Joyce. Umpire Bob Davidson is a notoriously bad umpire, and what compounds his errors is his utter denial of his mistakes. Two particular doozies:

• Davidson raised foreign conspiracy theories twice in the World Baseball Classic when Davidson incorrectly overruled the original correct call, and ruled that a Japanese runner tagged up too early, costing Japan a go-ahead run in a game they'd eventually lose by one run. In that same World Baseball Classic, Mexico hit a home run against a foul pole which was incorrectly downgraded to a double by Davidson. These two events led fans in Japan and Mexico to dub Davidson the "patriotic ump".
• Recently when the Phillies played the Marlins, Davidson ruled an obviously game-winning fair ball foul, and remained defiant in the face of instant replay, drawing remarks like "dreadful" from the Marlins owner and "that was the worst call I've ever seen in my 30 years of professional baseball" from the Marlins manager. Davidson responded by digging in his heels and defended his call even after seeing the replay.

But the errors aren't the problem. The real problem is the lack of acknowledgement that he blew the calls. People are pretty understanding and forgiving if you acknowledge that you're not perfect. People are less understanding and forgiving when you make mistakes and insist that you didn't make a mistake.

Speaking of which, don't even get my started on Isaiah Thomas, the man who not only singlehandedly killed the Knicks organization with idiotic and salary cap-killing signings or trades for Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, Jalen Rose, Steve Francis, Jerome James, etc., but also managed to embarrass the organization by getting implicated in a sexual harassment suit which was eventually settled out of court. Despite this, Thomas managed to weasel a consulting job with the Knicks, and then had the gall to say, "I would be interested in going back to the NBA as a GM for the right spot and the right opportunity."

This is akin to Bernie Madoff saying, "I would be interested in managing a fund, but only if it was with the right firm and right opportunity."