June 6th, 2010

Inspired by Umpire Jim Joyce’s blown call costs Armando Galarraga perfect game (Washington Post 6/03/10), Bud Selig will not reverse umpire Jim Joyce’s botched call (Washington Post 6/04/10) and Will: Baseball should not Overrule Umpire’s Wrong Call (ABCNews.com 6/06/10).

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the (stuff) out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game… I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay.” – umpire Jim Joyce after he saw the replay footage (quoted in Washington Post 6/03/10)

 

“There’s no doubt he feels bad and terrible. I have a lot of respect for the man. It takes a lot to say you’re sorry and to say in interviews he made a mistake.” – Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga (quoted in Washington Post 6/04/10)

 

“Would you rather have had a 21st perfect game or this wonderful example of sportsmanship and maturity? You strive for perfection in anything, in baseball, anything else, and you’re going to destroy the rhythm of the game and the human element that we love.” – George Will on “This Week” roundtable

 

“Will questions, ’Would you rather have the 21st perfect game or this wonderful example of sportsmanship and maturity.’ Hey George, why can’t we have both? Ah yes, we must preserve the “rhythm of the game and the human element we love.” So tradition and unnecessary tolerance for mistakes, trumps doing the right thing? Sums up Wills political ideology pretty well.” — B.Bear (ABC News Blog 6/06/10 5:09 PM)

Props to Jim Joyce (the guy who the Detroit-Cleveland game umpired)–

Now nobody’s calling for you to be fired.

You knew what was right and had the guts to do it:

You made a mistake, but you owned up to it.

As the saying goes, to err is human,

But admitting you’re wrong to divinity is akin.

And props to you, Armando Galarraga (the Tigers pitcher):

Your attitude is a pleasant change from the self-centered bitcher.

Some primadonnas blame others for disasters they create,

But that you didn’t do that in this case is really great.

Commissioner Selig, why make everyone suffer for an honest error?

Wouldn’t correction of the record book be fairer?

It’s not like that would be opening up a case that had been closed long ago–

This just happened a few days ago.

And George, as with your political commentary, your logic is elusive:

Sportsmanship and fairness are not mutually exclusive.

As B. Bear points out, your “tolerance for mistakes” trumping fairness

Are like the prior Administration’s unwillingness, their mistakes to address.

Yes, it’s true, the umpire did strike out,

But that he’s a mensch is no longer in doubt.

But he made up for it by hitting a homerun,

But that doesn’t mean the error shouldn’t be undone.

It’s good to admit when you blow it,

But hard to if you don’t even know it.

Evidence of their mistakes continues to accrue,

So maybe Bush-Cheney will do it someday too.

***

Here’s Countdown’s 6/03/10 report.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here’s George Will’s “This Week” interview.

Sorry, wrong video clip. That was actually a scene from the source of our titular inspiration, The Empire Strikes Back. Here’s the George Will interview. And sorry George, but I won’t come over to your dark side.

Here’s Keith Olbermann on 9/18/06 calling for a Bush apology. “It will not be offered, of course. He does not realize its necessity. There are now none around him who would tell him, nor could.” Flawed logic, Mr. ex-President? And like Keith says, “it is never unacceptable to think” (now that was an Evil Empire for you). This is truly an impressive statement, so watch it all the way through.

Then radio host Al Franken once ruminated about a Bush mea culpa interview along the lines of the Nixon-Frost interview (watch that below ; Nixon’s pseudo-admission that “perhaps…some of the things were wrong” comes at the 47 second mark) that would go on for days. I thought it was in his very funny documentary God Spoke (watch that below too), but I couldn’t find the clip in there. (If you have or know of that clip, please email me.)

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