Is there a Ref/Umpire's day? I think they need one.

My first good memory of dealing with a referee was in high school football. I was tackled for no reason at all. The ball wasn't near me. I was too slow to make it to the ball carrier and I was not going to be useful to the play. Out of nowhere I was flattened by a guy as big as I was running at top speed. The play was legal. Needless to say I got revenge on the next play when the roles were reversed and I sent him into the ground hitting him from behind. It was wrong. It was illogical in the grand scheme of the play, but it was legal too... kinda. My intent was nothing short of a criminal act if done off the field. All I heard the ref say was "Watch yourself, 78." I said "Yes, sir" and went on about my business. Thanks for letting me get revenge, ref.

Now when I heard that the MLB Umpire Jim Joyce screwed up a call that would've given Armando Gallaraga a perfect game, I wanted to be angry. It wasn't 4 seconds after I heard it that the newscaster explained that he apologized. Say What? An umpire admitting he was wrong? No mass amount of death threat mail? No calls from whatever organization calling for him to step down? No mistress scandals? No bribery or extortion attempts? You mean to tell me this was an honest mistake? I was starting to believe it didn't exist anymore. I was actually angry that there wasn't a scandal.

Let's all stop for a second and think when was the last time someone made a mistake and took ownership for it without blaming their childhood, drinking, drug addiction, sex addiction or just plain denying it ever happened. I applaud this Ump. I would be proud to have him official my kid's baseball game... as long as I have multiple cameras for instant replay should this situation arise again.

Cheers, Jim Joyce. I'll raise my koozie to you. An official who had the wherewithal to man up and admit when he was wrong. Thus inspiring armchair umpires with the belief that we can do your job until something like this comes along and then we're happy it's you and not us.

Umpire speaks out

*picture by Today/MSNBC