The Myth of Choice_ Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits - Kent Greenfield [71]
And then something remarkable happened.
Armando Galarraga turned and smiled at Joyce. He cocked his head slightly, gave a bemused look, and walked back to the pitcher’s mound. He did not argue; he did not explode into a rage. He went back to his job. He faced the next batter and got another ground out, completing what amounted to a twenty-eight-out perfect game.
Then another remarkable thing happened. Joyce said he was sorry. Umpires rarely acknowledge mistakes, but as soon as the game ended and Joyce saw the replay of his call, he knew he had screwed up. He immediately asked to see Galarraga, and, in tears, hugged him and apologized. He explained that in the moment, “I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay . . . It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the shit out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game.”6
For his part, Galarraga was gracious and empathetic. “He probably feels more bad than me. Nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s human. I understand . . . I gave him a hug.”7
The next night, Joyce was given the option to not umpire the last game of the series. Instead, he went back to work, taking his turn behind the plate. The Tigers’ manager sent Galarraga to deliver the night’s lineup card to Joyce at home plate. They spoke for a moment. Joyce, tearing up, gave Galarraga a pat on the shoulder while the crowd offered warm applause.
Joyce’s mistake is almost incomprehensible. It was a routine call. ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian said that it was the kind of call that umpires get correct 100,000 times out of 100,001. Joyce said in an ESPN interview that his “instinct” had taken over, but that he could not explain the mistake: “I don’t know how I got that call wrong.”8 Perhaps it was nervousness. Perhaps he was trying unconsciously to correct a tendency to err on the side of the pitcher in such a situation. One theory was that Galarraga caught the ball in the webbing of his mitt, so that Joyce did not hear the usual “pop” of the ball hitting the glove. But whatever the reason, Joyce made the wrong decision.
We can all identify with Joyce, though most of us have not made our bad decisions in front of millions with access to instant replay. Indeed, it’s easier to identify with Joyce than with Galarraga. Few of us have achieved the kind of success Galarraga did that night, but each of us has chosen poorly. Some of our mistakes are made quickly, like Joyce’s. Others are made after deliberation, discussion, and debate. We are all human, and to err is human.
The question for us is whether James Joyce—the writer, not the umpire—was correct when he wrote that errors “are the portals of discovery.”9
1.
Some scientific evidence suggests that people who have developed expertise in a certain area may know or sense something before they can articulate it or even bring it to consciousness. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink became a bestseller by popularizing this notion, arguing that we should learn to trust our first impressions and snap judgments. Gladwell begins his book using the example of art historians whose “intuitive repulsion” gave them clues that a statue purchased by the Getty Museum was a fake.10 In his book How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer uses the example of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose membership in the NFL elite depends primarily on his instantaneous reads of defenses and quick decision making in the face of onrushing behemoths.11 Umpires like Jim Joyce provide additional examples. If they are good—and (it pains me to say this) most of them are—they get it right much more often than not.
The idea of trusting your snap judgments has become so popular that it is something of a fad. Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, one of the fresher faces of the Republican party, told the 2010 graduating class at his alma mater (and my employer) Boston College Law School that new lawyers should, when facing career decisions, “go with their gut.”12
But snap judgments may also lead to disastrous results; sometimes first impressions