A confusing situation produces a moment of clarity for Jim Joyce

Even on that last play, which started with an amazing play by Pedroia, there was failure: Saltalamacchia made a wild throw and Middlebrooks failed to reach

Michael Rosenberg | Oct 27, 2013

Even on that last play, which started with an amazing play by Pedroia, there was failure: Saltalamacchia made a wild throw and Middlebrooks failed to reach it. It was understandable. It was baseball. The best players in the world will fail, but they also make amazing plays. Umpires do not have to make amazing plays. They just have to get the calls right. Three years after the low point of his professional life, Jim Joyce showed he has learned. This time, he was right.

Published Oct 27, 2013

MICHAEL ROSENBERG

Michael Rosenberg is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, covering any and all sports. He writes columns, profiles and investigative stories and has covered almost every major sporting event. He joined SI in 2012 after working at the Detroit Free Press for 13 years, eight of them as a columnist. Rosenberg is the author of "War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest." Several of his stories also have been published in collections of the year's best sportswriting. He is married with three children.