The perfect game is one of the rarest accomplishments in sports. No hits, no walks, no men reaching base. 27 up, 27 down. In nearly 400,000 contests in more than 130 years of Major League
Baseball history, it has only happened 20 times. This past June 2nd, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga needed only 83 pitches to throw baseball’s 21st perfect game, an amazing
achievement for any pitcher, let alone one who is not a superstar. Except that’s not how the game entered the record books.
That’s because James A. Jim” Joyce III, a veteran umpire with more than twenty years of big league experience, the man voted the best umpire in the game in 2010 by baseball’s players, missed
the call at first base on what would have been the final out of the perfect game. No, I did not get the call correct,” Joyce said after seeing a replay. I kicked the sh*t out of it.
I
took a perfect game away from that kid.”
But rather than throw a tantrum, Galarraga simply turned and smiled, went back to the mound and took care of business, recording the final out of a one hit shutout. Nobody’s perfect,” he
said later in the locker room.
In Nobody’s Perfect, Galarraga and Joyce come together to tell the personal story of a remarkable game that will live forever in baseball lore, and to trace their fascinating lives in
sports up until this pivotal moment. Galarraga’s professional career began at the age of 16 in Venezuela. The son of a chemistry teacher and a marine biologist, the Montreal Expos signed him
for just ＄3,000. By the famous night in June, Galarraga had notched a career record of 51-55, undergone multiple surgeries, and pitched for twelve teams in three organizations. He’d even been
traded while on his honeymoon. And this spring, at 28, he didn’t come north with the club. He started the season in with the AAA Toledo Mud Hens, only joining the big league club in May when
fifth starter Dontrelle Willis underperformed.
Joyce came to the professional game later than Galarraga. He played college ball at Bowling Green, but after graduation he was working in the same Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio where both his
mother and father had worked. But in 1977 he decided to take a chance, and fled to Florida for umpire school. The road to the majors for an ump is just as hard as for a player, if not harder.
The pay is certainly worse, and few have the same romantic ideas of the minor leagues for umpires as they do for players. It took Joyce a full decade to reach the big leagues. But unlike the
journeyman path of Galarraga, once he reached the show, Joyce has had a sterling career. One of the best umpires in the game, he has worked two All-Star games and thirteen postseason
series.
Nobody’s Perfect alternates between these two fascinating characters, telling their story in their own, unique voices. It is an absorbing insider’s look at two lives in baseball, at a
singular tremendous achievement, and an enduring moment of pure grace and sportsmanship.
Selections from the extensive commentary on the game
There is much to be said for perfection’ in any human endeavor. Yet we learn at our mother’s knee that we can hardly aspire to attain that august level of conduct. We are frail humans and
we make mistakes.
We who love the game also love its imperfections and failures, because we understand the importance of redeeming our failures by better performance. We may be odd to be
willing to confess error and to admit mistakes. But the humanity of our effort can, as [Tigers Manager Jim] Leyland has shown, provide lessons about civility that extend beyond our little
game.” Fay Vincent, former commissioner or Major League Baseball
This is an amazing story.
The magnanimity of Galarraga. The honesty and courage of Joyce, everybody coming together makes it one of those classic, human, baseball stories.”Ken Burns
"I feel sorry for the umpire, and I just feel real badly for the kid. He's probably wondering right now whose side God is on.”Don Larsen, the only man to pitch a perfect game in the World
Series
[A] wonderful example of sportsmanship and maturity.”George Will
It is the essence of human heartbreak for as long as there have been human hearts, to make a mistake, important and equally obvious, to yearn to go back in time and correct it, erase it from
the pages of the past, to do anything to take it back, anything to make it not so. That essential angst of our existence played out on a baseball field in Detroit.” Keith Olbermann
Joyce and Galarraga, otherwise largely unknown until fate conspired to bring them together for the 27th out that wasn't, made the evening a beautiful one for baseball. How they responded to
the blown call, and not the call itself, became what is most important.
It was a night on which Galarraga and Joyce made baseball proud, when the game was never more human and never more
right, and it took one man to be so obviously wrong. Baseball was fortunate to have both men be the ones to meet at first base in the eye of this storm. ”Tom Verducci, SI.com
The real human grace that both [Galarraga] and Jim Joyce displayed a pitcher and umpire, as natural adversaries as cats and dogs became a portrait of inspiration that's bigger than the
fine print in any record books. You know what? I think it was a perfect game.” Scott Simon, NPR
Additional Comp. Titles
Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Sixteen Perfect Games (978-1572434547)
Unhittable: Reliving the Magic and Drama of Baseball's Best-Pitched Games (978-1572436664)
