Where Have You Gone Jim Joyce?

When I think of baseball, one of the first people I think of is former MLB umpire Jim Joyce. He’s one of the really Ôgood guys’ that has come across the diamond over the years.

As 2022 is rapidly entering its bottom of the ninth, I think back to the many people who I have come across just this year. There have been happy times. I attended my first Tampa Bay Rays games at Tropicana Field. Covering the late Gil Hodges’ Hall of Fame induction this past July in Cooperstown is another highlight I witnessed.

Speaking with Joyce, who called balls and strikes, and outs on the baselines from 1987 to his last game on October 2, 2016, continues to bring a smile to my face.

Sometimes we get lucky.

On a whim, I called Joyce a couple of months back. Lo and behold, he picked up. I knew it was going to be a good day.

You see, for all that Joyce did for the integrity of the game, he can’t shake one game that he was assigned to in June 2010. Assigned as the first base ump for a Detroit Tigers home game at Comerica Park with the visiting Cleveland Indians in town, Joyce made a safe call in the top of the ninth that he is reminded of on a daily basis.

This is the near-perfect game pitched by Detroit’s Armando Galarraga.

Cleveland’s Jason Donald hits a ground ball in the direction of Tigers’ first baseman Miguel Cabrera. He cleanly fields the ball, then tosses it into the direction of Galarraga who is covering first. The play is close, and Joyce signals safe. An infield hit is registered. The perfect game is gone.

However, everyone in the ballpark and out in TV land knows it’s a bad call. After the game, Joyce admits he blew the call. This was a time when there were no manager challenges.

Galarraga ended up with a one-hitter.

So, when I had Joyce on the phone from his home in Oregon, I wanted to know more about the fallout from his most famous call. As I said, the man who logged nearly a decade traveling the minor leagues, paying his dues in hopes of having his contract picked up by the American League in 1989 on a full-time basis, didn’t avoid the subject. Much to my surprise, Joyce, a college pitcher at Bowling Green State University (Ohio), offered as many details as possible about that memorable game.

But, what I suspect kept Joyce on the phone with me, at first, is his appreciation of Southwest Florida.

You see, with just a few bucks in his pocket and dreams of a steady career as a major league ump, Joyce drove from his home in Toledo bound for St. Petersburg. After gaining passing grades in umpiring school, the next phase for those with the highest marks was to settle in Bradenton.

Camped in Bradenton, this was when Joyce began accepting his first professional umpiring assignments. From working spring training games, the experience gained gave Joyce the confidence to move on to Class-A ball.

Many years later and routinely praised by players and coaching staff on the big-league level for his accurate calls, Joyce was rewarded by MLB brass in being assigned to work three All-Star Games and three World Series. There was never any dispute that Joyce was one of the more respected veteran umpires in baseball.

For all the good he did, even I wanted to ask about a game that took place a dozen years back. Curiosity got the best of me.

Amazingly, just a month prior to the near-perfect game hurled by Galarraga, Joyce, on Mother’s Day, worked a game between the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays. Oakland’s Dallas Braden tossed a perfect game.

What are the odds in such a short span of time such pitching gems could be witnessed by the same umpire?

On August 20, 2012, two seasons after that game at Comerica, Joyce put in a heroic performance at Arizona’s Chase Field. A Diamondback employee was in cardiac arrest prior to the game, and it was Joyce who performed CPR until help arrived. The life-saving call by the MLB umpire ultimately saved the employee’s life.

What a hero. However, when Joyce’s name comes up among baseball people, the conversation always begins and ends with the near-no-hitter.

When I read Nobody’s Perfect: Two Men One Call and a Game for Baseball History written by Galarraga and Joyce with Daniel Paisner, I learned what an even better human being than umpire Joyce is.

Whenever his assignments were in Cleveland or Detroit, Joyce would stay with his mother Ellouise Joyce. Staying in the house he grew up in, Joyce would make the 45-minute drive in either direction to the ballparks, then back home to be with his mom. After the blown Donald call, Joyce offers fascinating details on his drive home and his frank talk with mom about that game.

When my conversation concluded with Joyce, I couldn't have been happier that he not only picked up on my call but chose to engage. I truly believe that when I said I was calling from Bradenton, this is when the green light came on to reminisce.