Lord Stan The Man

In sports, the easiest person to blame for a loss is the referee. Though I always try to avoid heaping the burden of defeat on the umpire, I know I have been guilty of such behavior. Even after Michigan was defeated 32-28 by Nebraska in a fairly meaningless 2005 Alamo Bowl, I angrily voiced my frustration with the officiating in a letter to the University of Michigan athletic magazine, The Wolverine.

Blaming the refs for a loss is usually a ridiculous concept -- rarely do officials have such an impact on the game for either side. It may be tough to grasp, but the refs really don’t want one team or player to win (except in the NBA of course, in which the referee uniform is a LeBron jersey). I’ve tried to convince myself that the refs have been rooting for Ohio State over Michigan for the past six years, but even then I have a hard time buying into the notion of solely officiating costing a game.

But when an official blows a call on a single significant play, it is impossible to keep blame away from the referee. Take Jim Joyce’s blown first base call Wednesday night with two outs in the ninth inning, which directly cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. From the many replays shown throughout the night, it was clear that Indians hitter Jason Donald was out at first base. Should have been perfect.

Yet baseball is an imperfect sport. Referees are only human, as many Tigers players would comment later. Fans are clearly up in arms against Joyce, based on the angry Facebook statuses on my homepage (in fact, that’s how I found out about the incident). The Tigers and the umps even had a confrontation after the game concluded. But while Galarraga, Tigers fans and baseball fans were robbed of a perfect game on Wednesday night, they witnessed something integral to the true intention of sport: class and sportsmanship.

Although many of the other Tigers players surrounded Joyce after the game, Galarraga never actually said anything. After the blown call, he simply smiled in disbelief and eventually walked back to the mound as boos rained down from the Comerica Park crowd. “He feel so bad,” the near-perfect pitcher told Fox Sports Detroit in broken English. “He probably feel more bad than me.”

Pretty classy for a guy robbed of history. The same can be said for Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who calmly answered questions from reporters after the game. He called the blown play a “crying shame” on more than one occasion, but he had nothing but praise for Joyce. “Jim’s a real good umpire, has been for a long time,” he said. “But he probably got it wrong.”

Can you imagine White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen after a similar call? His postgame interviews would have been appropriate only for HBO. Were Leyland and Galarraga disappointed? Sure. But they recognized that Joyce does not deserve the oncoming media-inspired firestorm just for making a bad call at the worst possible time.

After the game, Joyce was regretful, upset and classy. He personally sought out Galarraga after the game and apologized, and the pitcher was noticeably moved by the official’s actions. “I give a lot of credit to that guy, to tell me ‘Hey I need to talk to you, because I really say I’m sorry,’” Galarraga said. “He feel really bad.”

Joyce was also emotional after the contest ended. “I just cost that kid a perfect game,” he said. “I thought he beat that throw. I was convinced he beat that throw, until I saw the replay.” According to Sports Illustrated, Galarraga told a Venezuelan reporter that Joyce was crying as he apologized to the pitcher.

The umpire could have avoided Galarraga, but instead he owned up to his mistake and said sorry. “I’m so sorry in my heart,” Joyce said to the pitcher, according to the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

Unfortunately, most fans don’t know a referee’s name until a mistake is made. Tim Donaghy. Ed Hochuli. Joe West (as of recently, who Ozzie Guillen berated). And now Jim Joyce.

Even if Joyce had made every call correctly in his long career, he will forever be remembered for this one call. It’s an unfortunate perk of being part of an officiating crew.

But tonight, three absolute class acts reminded us that sport is not all about records and statistics. No, Armando Galarraga’s name will not go down in history as having pitched the 21st perfect game all-time on June 2, 2010. But as a Tigers fan, I will remember this game for the classiness shown by manager Jim Leyland and pitcher Armando Galarraga in a serious moral defeat for the club.

I’ll always remember this game as being perfect for Galarraga -- both on and off the field. Even if the record books don’t say it, I know I’ll remember this perfect game more than any other in MLB history.


You can e-mail Stanley at lordstantheman@gmail.com with any comments or questions. Stanley writes a Detroit Lions blog for NFL.com's Blog Blitz powered by SportsFanLive.com.