Jim Joyce's Blown Call Draws Gasps in Press Box

When a blown call at first base by umpire Jim Joyce cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, writers in the press box "gasped."

Galarraga was on the verge of making baseball history when Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians hit a ground ball to second base for what should have been the third out and end of the game.

But even thought the throw to Galarraga, who was covering first, clearly beat Donald, Joyce emphatically called Donald safe.

Galarraga retired the next hitter, but the perfect game was gone.

The Tigers beat the Indians, 3-0.

Afterwards, an emotional Joyce admitted freely that he was wrong and Donald was indeed out.

Detroit Free Press sports columnist Michael Rosenberg says he gasped when the replay was shown in the press box. "We all gasped," Rosenberg told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith. "We couldn't believe it. Because as soon as it happened, with the naked eye, it looked like he was out. And as we're watching the replay, I just said, 'I really hope he was safe for that umpire's sake, and it was pretty clear he was not."

Rosenberg said he thinks, "For Jim Joyce, it was sort of the ultimate 'I can't believe I just locked my keys in the car' moment, except it wasn't even his car. And he knew -- I think it was sort of settling in for him that, no matter how many right calls he makes the rest of his career, he's gonna be defined by this wrong call. And he was broken up by it. He was devastated. But he handled it with about as much class as could you imagine."

And Galarraga, Smith observed, who had every right to be enraged, handled it "with grace."

"Yeah," Rosenberg agreed. "I was standing next to him in the clubhouse when he watched the replay for probably the 20th time, and he just turned to me and said, 'Unbelievable.' It was like it was happening to somebody else. It was just surreal."

Rosenberg said there's virtually no chance the call could be reversed to give Galarrago the perfecto.