Joyce misses one

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

I'm surprised by this reaction from you. Sounds like Joyce did this to you personally, as you say "we" could have had two perfect games in a week. Really? Who cares? Galaraga will get more mileage out of this than he would out of a perfect game. History will forever talk of the "perfect game that wasn't." The first thing I thought of when I heard this (listening to a talk show that was reporting live) was not to selfishly think how I was deprived of a perfect game, I thought about how badly Jim Joyce must feel right now.

I appreciate your candor and respect you for it.

I was infuriated at first as a longtime close follower of this great game. (I think that describes me better than fanboy, even though I came off that way.) I couldn't hang with this whole thing. Sure, by the time I slept on it, I felt horribly for the guy---far more so than for Galarraga. By the time Joyce strode through the tunnel for the next game all red-eyed, I wept right along with him. Good heavens, it was one of the most stirring scenes in baseball history hours after being one of the most infuriating and dumbfounding.

When I was blowing off steam, my chiding Joyce for his not busting to his angle got interpreted as my calling his angle a bad one. And my praise of him for standing up like few have ever stood up before, and turning the whole debacle into one of the most meaningful and memorable chapters in the history of umpiring was blasted and exaggerated into something else again. (The exaggerator's exaggeration got deleted.)

Thank you for a mature, honest response. It's a refreshing change from some others' responses.