Ink Inc. Media Relations/PR

Ryan Gerding

He Got one Call Right

06.03.10

The baseball world is in an uproar over a badly blown call that ruined a perfect game by Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga.  A perfect game is one of the rarest feats in baseball.  Though there have already been two this season, in all of recorded baseball history there have only been 20.  A pitcher throws a perfect game when he gets every single batter out.  No hits, no walks, nobody reaches base.  Last night, Galarraga was one out away from a perfect game.  History was about to be made.  The final batter tapped a slow ground ball to the second baseman, who turned and fired it to Galarraga who was covering first base.  First base umpire called the runner safe.  The perfect game was ruined.  One small problem: he was out.  The replay pretty clearly showed that Galaragga had caught the ball well before the runner reached first.

Fans were apoplectic.  Online message board and Twitter caught fire.  The manager was furious.  Galarraga’s teammates berated the umpire as soon as the game was over.  The Governor of Michigan has even gotten into the fray.  Umpire Jim Joyce, who has been calling games for more than two decades, instantly became the most hated man in baseball.  And while there’s no doubt Joyce made a bad call on that play, from a public relations perspective, the next call he made was spot on.

Umpires generally don’t talk to the media.  In fact, they almost never do, and especially not immediately after making a controversial–and incorrect call.  But Jim Joyce did.  Moments after heading to the umpire’s locker room, Joyce agreed to talk to the media.  And he did something that crisis communicators and PR pros wish their CEOs and politicians would do more often: he very quickly, very succinctly said, “I made a mistake.”

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the (stuff) out of it,” Joyce said, looking and sounding distraught as he paced in the umpires’ locker room. “I just cost that kid a perfect game.”– Associated Press

Then, with tears in his eyes, he sought out the pitcher whose perfect game he ruined, gave him a hug and apologized.  I’m guessing that Jim Joyce probably hasn’t gotten a lot of crisis communication training.  I’m assuming he’s not had many sessions with highly paid media trainers.  Yet in a few short moments, he was able to do what most public figures facing intense scrutiny cannot our would not do.

Did it help?  Maybe a little.  Fans will be fans and I’m certain when Joyce takes the field to umpire today he will be met with a chorus of boos.  But perhaps among some of the people whose opinion matters most to Joyce, the anger has been tempered a bit.

Jim Leyland, Detroit’s manager declared after the game (and the apology from Joyce), “the players are human, the umpires are human, the managers are human.”  And even Galarraga, the pitcher whose dreams of a perfect game were destroyed, seemed to be taken by Joyce’s response.  “You don’t see an umpire after the game come out and say, `Hey, let me tell you I’m sorry.  He felt really bad. He didn’t even shower.”

Jim Joyce’s apology for the bad call won’t make the call go away.  Nor will it likely keep him from always being remembered as the guy who ruined a perfect game.  But maybe, just maybe, the way he handled the situation with honesty and humility, will at least give some folks pause before vilifying a guy who probably feels almost as bad as the person whose dreams he ruined.

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