Sports Radio Interviews

Deja Vu All Over Again for Jim Joyce?

Jim Joyce has given us a tremendous psychological look into one man’s emotional trek. From the confidence required to make an affirmative call and stick to that call through arguments, to the disappointment in realizing the call was a mistake and that he personally robbed a player of “perfection,” to asking for and receiving forgiveness from all parties to the point where his character has been universally lauded and then to be back in the same position less than a week later, Jim Joyce has experienced just about everything a man in his position can experience in the span of seven days.

On Monday night, in just his second game behind the plate since Armando Galarraga’s lost perfect game, Jim Joyce watched from the best seat in the house as Cole Hamels did not allow a hit into the seventh inning. Uh oh. Adrian Gonzalez let Joyce off the hook (at least from disrupting another historical pitching accomplishment) with a home run that ultimately served as the game winner in a well-pitched and, by all accounts, well-umpired game.

Elsewhere Tuesday night, Armando Galarraga allowed just two earned runs in five innings as the Tigers defeated the White Sox 7-2.

Just as they had both proven their character in how they responded after last week’s game, both shook off the butterflies in critical situations to come through as needed.

Jim Joyce joined Howard Eskin and Ike Reese on WIP in Philadelphia to discuss his thoughts during Hamels’ game, the week since Galarraga’s perfect game, if he was ever worried about retaliation, and the pressure in today’s game.

On his thoughts when Cole Hamels going into the seventh:

“I had to focus so much, that it’s not even funny. I started getting those butterflies and that knot in my stomach again. I’m thinking, ‘Is this fate? Is this my penance? What is going to happen here?’ When he threw the pitch to Adrian Gonzalez, first of all, I didn’t think he hit it out of the ballpark. And not only that, the pitch was a ball – it was kind of up and out a little bit. But when the ball went out of the ballpark, the knot instantly went away… I’m thinking to myself, ‘You can’t screw up twice. There’s just no way you can do it.’ You just never know. You just hope that you get to that point or that period and everything just goes smooth. Honest to God, when Gonzalez hit the ball out of the ballpark, I really didn’t think it was gone. But when it did, I felt bad for Cole because he was throwing very, very well. The knot in my stomach literally did go away.”

On what has gone through his mind in the last week since the call:

“Since the call, what’s been going through my mind is obviously, how in the world did I ever come up with a safe call on that call. And then immediately after that, the thing that I have been reflecting on is the support and the kind things that people have been saying about this certain situation.”

On if he worried about retaliation:

“My very first thought was, after it really settled in in the locker room that night on Wednesday night, the very first thing i thought of, to be very honest with you, was my family. Because I knew that they would probably start getting either phone calls or text messages or emails. That was my very first thought. I personally did not get any threatening emails or telephone calls. My wife did not either. But my kids did. They are on the social networks. On one of the social networks, each of them probably got over 100 either threatening or very, very precise things that should be done to me.”

And on the pressure he is under in today’s game:

“Information is instantaneous now. Every single baseball game is on TV. Every pitch is on TV. We have a system for balls and strikes. The TV, the media uses it. Every pitch is recorded. The scrutiny that we are under now is probably at an all-time high. I’m not going to say we walk around on eggshells or anything like that. Every call we make -  bang-bang plays and stuff like that – I think there is more second guessing going on now. Obviously, I second-guessed like a big dog the other night. Every play is on TV. It’s on the Internet. It’s instantaneous across the country and probably worldwide now. I’m not going to say the job is harder because it’s still the job. You have to wait until something happens before you can react and do something and make your calls and stuff. But it’s more intense now… The biggest supervisor is actually TV.”

Listen to Jim Joyce on WIP in Philadelphia with Howard Eskin and Ike Reese.

Tags: Armando Galarraga, Cole Hamels, Howard Eskin, Jim Joyce, Major League Umpires, MLB, Perfect Game, WIP