Mariano Rivera Highlights

6/3, Baseball Ink on Jim Joyce:

• "Often cited as what umpires should be,

• even Mariano Rivera (yesterday) called him

• “the best we’ve got”,

he’s known for having a very sharp eye/ear in identifying correct calls on plays that broadcasters have to look at a dozen times on replays.

Joyce’s incorrect call was not idiocy. No. Idiocy would have been “Hey, screw you all. I made the call and I stand by it. The guy was safe.” In fact he exhibited great class in very quickly admitting he was wrong. Given, umpires get calls wrong in pretty much every game; it’s a difficult career path for a perfectionist and Joyce is as close as the game has to one."..."What would Joyce do?" ****

• from Peter Gammons, 6/3, mlb.com, end of article, "Tigers, Joyce, show class":

"At a time when we are besieged by extremist, take-the-low-road differences of opinion and voices that feel the need to scream obscenities, Joyce, Galarraga and Leyland demonstrated the best of instincts. In the end, they reminded everyone young and old

• of the words of John Grisham, words often
  

• repeated by Mariano Rivera: "There is nothing wrong with civility.""