Players Rate Jim Joyce as Top Umpire, Reject Instant Replay, in ESPN Poll

Jim Joyce, whose blown call cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, is rated the best umpire in Major League Baseball in a poll of 100 players taken by ESPN The Magazine.

The poll, taken after Galarraga’s near-perfect game on June 2, also found little support for instant replay -- with 22 percent of respondents favoring replay for calls on the bases, such as Joyce’s mistaken safe call on what would have been the final out of the game.

Joyce was selected as best umpire by 53 percent of the players, who answered anonymously when asked to select the three best and three worst umpires in baseball. Tim McClelland was next with 34 percent.

Players agreed with Commissioner Bud Selig’s decision not to award Galarraga a perfect game, with 86 percent of those surveyed saying Joyce’s mistake should not have been overturned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Gloster in San Francisco at rgloster@bloomberg.net.