We all remember Jim Joyce from “kicking the ****” out of Armando Galaragga’s perfect game. Even though Joyce blew that call, he is widely regarded as one of the best umpires in the game of baseball. And after what he did last night, he has also proved he is a one of the better human beings on the planet, saving a life of an Arizona Diamondbacks’ employee after she suffered a seizure.
Joyce, who knows how to perform CPR, acted quickly after seeing a poor woman struggling with a seizure. There was no one in the vicinity of the woman, outside of the umpiring crew, so Joyce acted on his instincts, using techniques he learned a long time ago.
“I’ve had to use CPR before. This is something everybody should know. Everybody should know what to do in a circumstance like that.
“It’s not a hard thing. You don’t need a degree. It’s very simple, and very easy.”
Joyce and the defibrillator didn’t initially work on the woman, but luckily after working hard with the paramedics, the woman started to breathe again and is now in stable condition.
Joyce was scheduled to ump home plate last night, but contemplated moving to third base after the emotional ordeal:
“It was very emotional, I’ll be honest with you. But I didn’t want to go to third base because just standing there, literally, [the incident] is all I would have thought about all night. I wouldn’t have been able to think about anything else.
“Going behind the plate, I would have something to do every minute. I could just do my job. But I’ll be honest with you, there were still times during the game that I was thinking about it.”
Job well done, Jim Joyce. I had an incident similar to this, witnessing a car accident right in front of me. I pulled over to the side of the road ready to assist. But before I even got out of the car a good samaritan was already on the scene, seemingly trained to handle the situation. Thank God, because I would have had no idea what to do.
I think it’s safe to say we can remember Jim Joyce for something else now.
Bryan is a featured writer for Rant Sports. Although he concentrates mostly on the game of baseball, you can find him covering things all over the Rant Sports Network.
