Joyce voted best umpire

[stalton]

Proof

 

Only 100 players took part in this vote. My guess is that nobody from the Tiger squad was in on this poll

[nate82]

One bad play doesn't make a bad umpire. I also believe the players didn't really vote on the umpires based on their calls but more on how they handle themselves on the field.

[Invader3K]

This poll was taken after the Gallaraga "almost perfect" game, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.

 

No real surprises in the "worst umpires", though.

[RayKingsForemanGrill]

It's easy to say things like "I bet no one on the Tigers voted", but if you honestly look at the situation and set aside message board rhetoric, the guy showed some real stones in owning up to his mistake. He didn't have to talk to reporters that night, he didn't have to go into the Tigers clubhouse. He didn't have to do interviews the next day. And he could have gotten someone else to sub for him.

 

Instead he manned up. Told everyone who would listen that he screwed up and that he was sorry. And guess what?

 

When you're a respected umpire who shows that kind of humility and accountability, people are going to respect you for it.

 

I'm actually not surprised at all he'd be regarded highly among players.

[bani1717]

The point in that article that stuck out to me the most was that 77 of 100 players said they didn't want instant replay on base calls. You could make the "small sample" argument because it's an average of just over 3 players/team that were surveyed. But the fact that such a majority of players don't want replay tells me that replay isn't the way to go. If the players, the most impacted parties, don't want it, then it's not a good idea.

[logan82]

It's easy to say things like "I bet no one on the Tigers voted", but if you honestly look at the situation and set aside message board rhetoric, the guy showed some real stones in owning up to his mistake. He didn't have to talk to reporters that night, he didn't have to go into the Tigers clubhouse. He didn't have to do interviews the next day. And he could have gotten someone else to sub for him.

 

Instead he manned up. Told everyone who would listen that he screwed up and that he was sorry. And guess what?

 

When you're a respected umpire who shows that kind of humility and accountability, people are going to respect you for it.

 

I'm actually not surprised at all he'd be regarded highly among players.

 

And the best part of the whole thing is that he didn't melt down and turn it into an ugly confrontation even though he thought he was right when he made the call. I can accept that umpires make mistakes. What I can't accept is home plate umpire not checking with 1B or 3B to see if a guy went around or umpires initializing or escalating confrontations. I would prefer robot umps that get every call right or at the very least replay for calls at 1B and the strikezone called by gameday just to get it right.

[JohnBriggs12]

All we know is if he had a vote, Dave Bush voted Ed Rapuano as worst.

[stalton]

It's easy to say things like "I bet no one on the Tigers voted", but if you honestly look at the situation and set aside message board rhetoric, the guy showed some real stones in owning up to his mistake. He didn't have to talk to reporters that night, he didn't have to go into the Tigers clubhouse. He didn't have to do interviews the next day. And he could have gotten someone else to sub for him.

 

Instead he manned up. Told everyone who would listen that he screwed up and that he was sorry. And guess what?

 

When you're a respected umpire who shows that kind of humility and accountability, people are going to respect you for it.

 

I'm actually not surprised at all he'd be regarded highly among players.

I suppose I need a half blue color for half serious comments.

 

I do actually agree that past the missed call, Joyce handled the situation beautifully. He could have thrown out a few players and a manager but he didn't. I just thought it was funny this coming on the heels of one of the biggest media-wise blown calls in quite some time (that also sparked the cause of the recent instant replay debate)

 

What I want to know is how spread out the players were, or if they just sent a mass questionaire and kept it up until 100 players turned theirs in?

 

 

[Thurston Fluff]

You could make the "small sample" argument because it's an average of just over 3 players/team that were surveyed.

 

Not unless you discount every poll ever done. It is routine to use a small random sample as a snap shot of the average. Most polls average about 3000 people as representative of a whole population and it's accuracy is around 3%.

 

This poll was taken after the Gallaraga "almost perfect" game, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.

 

While it very well may have he was also IIRC the rated as the second best last season. If not second very high. It isn't a surprise that he got a small bump from how he handled that call but it wasn't like he went form being one of the worst to first. He has been highly regarded by players well before the blown call.

[joepepsi]

Joyce handled himself well after the incident, as opposed to Rich Garcia who signed autographs and posed for pictures with Yankees fans after the Jeffrey Maier incident.