Long-Reads

Longreads

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Berkman on umpires: This happens all the time

In McTaggart's afternoon notebook, he asked a couple of the Astros how they feel about this whole Jim Joyce/Andres Armando Galarraga snafu.

Blum:
"It's heartbreaking to seek Jim Joyce, who's one of the better umpires and one of the more liked umpires, to have that happen to him. I know he's heartbroken over it. I'm also appreciative of how Galarraga handled it. He was great and showed an amazing amount of poise and courtesy. That was impressive to see, and I appreciate the heck out of that, but I definitely don't want instant replay more than we already do."

Berkman:
"Blown calls happen all the time. It's not an uncommon occurrence, and these guys are the best in the world at what they do. People make mistakes. I don't think it's a poor reflection on umpiring. It's a lot tougher than people realize because the game happens so fast. Things happen so quickly and many times in a baseball game the whole outcome rests on one call, so it's important to get them right. But baseball has survived 150 years without [replay] and will probably be around, if the world is, in another 150 years."

For instance, Monday night...