Oasis Church

• Philip Wagner
• Aug 03, 2010
• Category: General
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First base umpire, Jim Joyce, made a bad call – a really bad call. He ruled the runner safe, when he should have called him out. His mistake cost the pitcher, Armando Galarraga, a perfect game.

After pitcher, Armando Galarraga had retired 26 straight batters in a game on Wed night - one more out would make this game a “perfect game.”

On a throw to first base – video shows the runner was clearly out – perfect game. History made.  Something achieved only 22 times in baseball history.

But Joyce called the runner safe. Wow – what a horrible situation. You can read all about it on the web.

Several things about this story reminded me of some leadership issues.

1.  He made the wrong call

It was clear.  Bad call.  A lot of people upset. This could be seen as ‘robbing someone’ a place in history. Umpires are human. They make the best call they can. 

Leaders are not perfect.  We don’t get every call right. It does not mean that you are not a good leader or even a great leader. The better the calls – the better the leader. But we miss it sometimes. As hard as we try – we just get it wrong.

Has a leader whom you know, made a bad call? Is he or she a ‘horrible leader,’ ‘only in the position for himself,’ or did they just miss it – make a bad call? 

Jim Joyce is a veteran umpire of over 20 years and often rated as one of the best. He would never want to mess up an important call like that one.  He wants to be good at his job.  But he’s human.

Here is where another great lesson comes up…

2.  After the game, he admitted he made a mistake

He flat out said – “I messed that up….” The veteran ump personally apologized to Galarraga after the game and hugged him. To me - that’s integrity.

He did not put the focus on another element of the game. He did not blame something else – he just did the ‘classy’ thing…   “I blew the call.”

Have you made a bad call? Embarrassed? Admitting a mistake causes those who are your supervisors to trust you and your peers to respect you.

It’s a great example to those who follow you.

The next day, in a gesture of ‘forgiveness’ and class, Galarraga delivered the line-up card to the umpire personally before the game began – an unusual gesture – as if to say ‘let’s put it behind us.’ Jim Joyce stood there with tears in his eyes, moved at the gesture and the emotion of the moment.

3.  Criticism is tough

It’s easy to have an opinion. It’s not so easy to hear criticism. In our society today, everyone likes to voice their opinion. We criticize those in the public eye.

People sound foolish who make assessments of someone’s relationship that they have no personal knowledge of or judgments concerning decisions that have been made, about which they do not know the details.

We talk about what we would have done

• if we were the quarterback when those giant men were rushing in to tackle him,
• if we were married to that world famous actor,
• if we were the President of the US, or
• if we were the pastor of that church!

In reality – we have no idea what we would have done. We are just criticizing.

Being in the public eye is difficult. Every decision I make, makes some people happy and some people mad.  

Sometimes people are cruel with their criticisms. They speak as if the leader in question does not care about others, or did not spend days considering the situation or asking other leaders of greater experience for their advice.  Some comments are so cutting – it’s as if people forget that the leader they are criticizing is a human being with feelings.

While I have a soft heart, I wish I had tougher skin. In that area I’m definitely a work in progress. 

Perfect game on the line, a close play - in the heat of the moment what would you have done?  Are you sure you would have gotten the right call?  If a veteran umpire of over 20 years can get it wrong, maybe you could have also.

…Some thoughts to ponder from the world of baseball and leadership.