Wednesday at the Ballpark

Jim Joyce
A tip of the cap to umpire Jim Joyce. Watched the 9th inning of Armando Galarraga's should have been perfect game (whom I had on my last AL team). Joyce blew a call... badly... as everyone knows. I thought watching the game that Joyce might be claiming that Galarraga bobbled the ball, because really... how could you argue the throw was late or he missed the bag?

But, no... Joyce just flat blew the call.

A few things though. Joyce took a verbal lashing from Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera was actually walking over to Joyce ~between pitches~ and SCREAMING at him. 9 out of 10 umps run him for that. But, the right thing to do is take it... because the call was blown.

Then after the game... Joyce stayed on the field and took even more verbal abuse. Again, 9 out of 10 umps... maybe more... sprint off the field. Or worse, they start screaming back. Joyce took it though, because again... he blew the call.

Then later, he admitted to the press that he blew the call. That he had "cost that kid a perfect game."

Folks, he manned up... and good for him. A perfect game means the ump has to be perfect too... and that didn't happen. That's how baseball has worked for over 130 years now.


Troy Glaus and the Braves
May was a heck of a month for the Atlanta Braves. They went 20-8 to take over first place in the NL East, and they're now 2-0 in June and have won 8 in a row. They are scorching hot! I never had the slightest doubt they'd turn things around... ;)

A big reason for that turn around has been Troy Glaus, who was named the National League hitter of the month. He went 34 for 103 (.330), 6hr, 28rbi, 17r. Great month, and it has continued into June. A lot of his outs are hard hit balls too. He is not an easy out for pitchers.

Slow as they come... slower than I realized... but he's a solid power hitter and an RBI machine in the 5th slot in the Braves order.

And btw... isn't baseball a cool game? Wednesday night and look at all the stories (sure-fire Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr retired tonight too... never had him on a team of mine... though did have his dad for a couple of seasons... and he was a heck of a player in his own right).