100 players were polled, 53 voted him the best. the runner up, Tim McClelland had 34. however here is the real interesting part:

The players were also questioned on whether Commissioner Bud Selig should have overturned Joyce's call, which the umpire had quickly conceded had been erroneous, and if MLB should expand the use of instant replay to include close calls on the bases.

Eighty-six percent approved of the Commissioner's decision to not overrule Joyce, and 77 percent were against the use of instant replay for calls on the bases.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100613&content_id=11164986&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Everything I have read and heard is that Joyce is a good man and a very good umpire...shame it happened to him. There are plenty of douchers that would have not manned up and did what he did afterwards.

^^I was about to say the same thing. Everything I heard after the incident was how good of an ump and how respected Joyce is.

Anybody can make a mistake.

I also agree with the players on Bud Selig and replay.

I actually think people will have more respect for Joyce after the missed call. He handled it like a boss.

I still think that he should step down. It doesn't matter what he does from here on out, he will always be remembered for this mistake and nothing else.

If you ask this question before his botched call, how many of these players would know his name and say that he is a good umpire? I know that when I played baseball, I never knew the name of the umpires.

Jughead;389709 wrote:I still think that he should step down. It doesn't matter what he does from here on out, he will always be remembered for this mistake and nothing else.

If you ask this question before his botched call, how many of these players would know his name and say that he is a good umpire? I know that when I played baseball, I never knew the name of the umpires.

step down over one blown call? get out of here with that nonsense

Right.

And I would be willing to bet that almost every player in the MLB knew who Joyce was before the blown call.

Jughead;389709 wrote:If you ask this question before his botched call, how many of these players would know his name and say that he is a good umpire? I know that when I played baseball, I never knew the name of the umpires.

Did you play professional baseball? Joyce has been around for how many years? I didn't play above the high school/Legion level and I knew several umpires by name and could definitely pick out the good ones/bad ones.

Jughead;389709 wrote:I still think that he should step down. It doesn't matter what he does from here on out, he will always be remembered for this mistake and nothing else.

Dumb

Jughead;389709 wrote:I still think that he should step down. It doesn't matter what he does from here on out, he will always be remembered for this mistake and nothing else.

If you ask this question before his botched call, how many of these players would know his name and say that he is a good umpire? I know that when I played baseball, I never knew the name of the umpires.

Uh huh...that's just plain stupid. Do you know the names of everyone you work with? I do. These guys work together (the players and umps), and the dude has been around for 20+ years or whatever. Of course all the players know who he is, and knew who he was before the call. I knew the majority of the umpires we had in college by my junior season or so, but like you I didn't know them in Little League either - so you're excused.

pinstriper;389740 wrote:Uh huh...that's just plain stupid. Do you know the names of everyone you work with? I do. These guys work together (the players and umps), and the dude has been around for 20+ years or whatever. Of course all the players know who he is, and knew who he was before the call. I knew the majority of the umpires we had in college by my junior season or so, but like you I didn't know them in Little League either - so you're excused.

haha heck, even in little league, pony league, and high school age ball i knew a few of the umpire's names.

Jughead;389709 wrote:I still think that he should step down. It doesn't matter what he does from here on out, he will always be remembered for this mistake and nothing else.

If you ask this question before his botched call, how many of these players would know his name and say that he is a good umpire? I know that when I played baseball, I never knew the name of the umpires.

Don Denkinger did the same thing with a blown call that many believe cost the St. Louis Cardinals a World Series but he didn't step down; actually worked after that for 13 more years. He shouldn't step down.

I also know most of the umpires that we have for games by name at the college level within our league and we know who's good, who's bad, and who's out to screw us every chance they get

I stick by my statement, he SHOULD step down because an official/umpire should not make that mistake at the high school level, let alone at the pros. 22 years has been one hell of a long time...apparently too long if you can't make a call that really wasn't as close as some others that are called correctly. Remember that more than half the people on that thread were calling for his head too, it wasn't just me.

And before you ridicule me more than you already have, I have experience in baseball up until my sophomore year of high school (injuries), soccer from elementary through high school, and basketball until my freshman year. Once again, I never had a reason to learn the names of the refs/officials, so I didn't. Personally, I didn't think anyone outside of coaches knew the name of refs.

By the way, I have been a referee in multiple sports including: soccer, basketball, and professional wrestling, so I know what to look for and what not to look for in the latter.

So you are comparing your background of high school sports(at best) to a professional athlete??


I never played anything beyond high school and I can still to this day tell you the names of refs I had for basketball. Hell I can tell you a few names of umps I had for travel baseball in 7th grade.

I was one who was calling for his head and what not, but by no means should he step down. Do you think umps who miss balls/strikes should step down?? That is what you are saying. A strike zone is defined, but yet calls still get missed. The guy missed a call, yes it was a HUGE call, but it did NOT change the outcome of the game. It didn't even impact the game AT ALL.

Harry Wendelstedt will always be the #1 umpire. He lives in my old neighborhood and we fish the same holes in the St. John's river.
Ed Hickox too. He got screwed when the umps went on strike, just after he got called up to the majors. There were a few the league didn't hire back because of some BS. He finally worked his way back up but it was totally wrong the way he was treated. His wife and little kids suffered through hard times with him for about 5 years. Last year he got bonked on the head at the plate calling a Yankees-Indians game and missed the whole season.

I would be willing to bet that when I'm 30 you could line up the umps from my high school days and I'll be able to remember who were the good ones and who were bad. Even more so with basketball. I must've known the names of half basketball refs in the county.

Jughead;389859 wrote:I stick by my statement, he SHOULD step down because an official/umpire should not make that mistake at the high school level, let alone at the pros. 22 years has been one hell of a long time...apparently too long if you can't make a call that really wasn't as close as some others that are called correctly. Remember that more than half the people on that thread were calling for his head too, it wasn't just me.

And before you ridicule me more than you already have, I have experience in baseball up until my sophomore year of high school (injuries), soccer from elementary through high school, and basketball until my freshman year. Once again, I never had a reason to learn the names of the refs/officials, so I didn't. Personally, I didn't think anyone outside of coaches knew the name of refs.

By the way, I have been a referee in multiple sports including: soccer, basketball, and professional wrestling, so I know what to look for and what not to look for in the latter.

Are you comparing a pro wrestling ref to a major league ump?

So, Jughead, I guess what you mean is that every single referee/umpire in any sport should step down.

While (at the time) I was shocked and pissed off by Joyce's botch, the ONLY reason anyone (myself included) cared about it for more time than it took for the next batter to get out is because of the "imperfect perfect game" situation. If he has to step down for that missed call, give one legit reason why an ump shouldn't be forced out for, say, missing a tag on a stolen base in the first inning of a game that the team of the dude who unjustly got the steal lost 8-1?

If the dude's considered to be a very good ump, wanting him to step down because of one high-profile blunder is idiotic considering how many umps have screwed up calls throughout the history of the game.

AL BUNDY: Maybe he's bitter because he missed a low blow or brass knuckle shot that determined an important match and got canned because of that.

Jughead, I don't think we need to ridicule anymore than you have yourself. there are a total of 17 crews in ALL of MLB....and many of these guys have been around for years. I'm sure that most of the veteran players and umpires are on a first name basis....and I'd be pretty sure that pitching strategies are affected by whose calling balls and strikes that day.

HitsRus;390082 wrote:Jughead, I don't think we need to ridicule anymore than you have yourself. there are a total of 17 crews in ALL of MLB....and many of these guys have been around for years. I'm sure that most of the veteran players and umpires are on a first name basis....and I'd be pretty sure that pitching strategies are affected by whose calling balls and strikes that day.

Exactly. There are scouting reports on umpires the same as there are for other players. When a hitter goes to the plate, he has to know what the ump is most likely going to give the pitcher as far as a strike zone. Also, the pitcher knows where he can pitch to get the calls. I guarantee the veteran players can name pretty much every umpire in MLB.

What I thought was really crazy about this is 2 of the Umps that were voted the worst are on the same crew... Im sure players hate it when they have them do their games!

Jughead do you really think that pro athletes don't know the umps/refs? I mean knowing them helps the pro athletes in what they can and can't during the game some refs call it close others "let them play" then you have the Joey Crawford's of the world. And I just noticed that HitsRus and se-alum said pretty what I was going to in regards to baseball haha.

excellent article on Joyce and Galarraga..btw,jughead-I guess a username can reflect the person behind it

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tom_verducci/06/02/joyces.missed.call/index.html

Professional Wrestling? And he cited his playing experience as basically pee wee ball.

Jughead;389859 wrote:I stick by my statement, he SHOULD step down because an official/umpire should not make that mistake at the high school level, let alone at the pros. 22 years has been one hell of a long time...apparently too long if you can't make a call that really wasn't as close as some others that are called correctly. Remember that more than half the people on that thread were calling for his head too, it wasn't just me.

And before you ridicule me more than you already have, I have experience in baseball up until my sophomore year of high school (injuries), soccer from elementary through high school, and basketball until my freshman year. Once again, I never had a reason to learn the names of the refs/officials, so I didn't. Personally, I didn't think anyone outside of coaches knew the name of refs.

By the way, I have been a referee in multiple sports including: soccer, basketball, and professional wrestling, so I know what to look for and what not to look for in the latter.

So let's see...the only sport you played through high school was soccer. You quit errr got hurt so you couldn't play baseball and quit basketball.
I know my baseball umpires in college.
I know my football officials in college.
I know my wrestling officials from high school.
I know my baseball umpires from high school.
I know my football officials from high school.

So let the athletes, or at the least people who know SOMETHING about sports, have this discussion please.