You never know when the big moments will arrive,
and so it was that veteran umpire Jim Joyce made his biggest call of the season
... roughly 90 minutes
before the
Marlins-Diamondbacks game started
in
Arizona on Monday
night?
Joyce administered CPR to a Diamondbacks' game-day employee in a
tunnel leading to the umpires' dressing room minutes on his way into the
ballpark Monday, saving her life in a moment nobody who was in the vicinity at
Chase Field will soon forget.
Talk about making the right call in a
split-second.
"It was non-normal," Joyce told CBSSports.com Tuesday
afternoon. "I don't know what word to put on it.
"It's obviously never
happened to me before."
Joyce, 56, and the other umpires in his crew --
Lance Barrett, Jim Reynolds and James Hoye -- had just arrived at Chase Field
and were headed to their dressing room when they saw a woman down in the midst
of having a seizure. Noting that, Joyce, who learned CPR when he was in high
school, made sure that the woman's head was protected. But shortly afterward,
her body relaxed and Joyce knew something was wrong.
"I've had to use CPR
before," Joyce said, though not in many years. "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."
Paramedics arrived while Joyce was administering CPR, but
even after an initial shock from a defibrillator, the woman did not come out of
it. So Joyce continued administering CPR while the paramedics did another round
with the defibrillator.
Finally, the woman began breathing again. Someone
told Joyce later Monday night that she went out again in the ambulance and that
paramedics again used the defibrillator. But by later that night, when he came
back into the umpires' room following the game, Joyce's understanding was that
the woman's condition in the hospital was stable.
"I'm going to find out
more, hopefully she's doing OK," said Joyce, who was waiting for an update
Tuesday.
Joyce, who was in the national spotlight in 2010 when he missed
the call at first base that prevented the
Tigers' Armando Galarraga from
completing a perfect game against the
Indians, was scheduled to work
home plate Monday night.
After the emotions of the moment, his colleagues
suggested a swap that would move him to third base. Joyce declined.
"It
was very emotional, I'll be honest with you," he said. "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."
The Marlins
clobbered the Diamondbacks 12-3, and it was a fairly routine game for Joyce
behind the plate. There were no controversies.
Turns out, not only did
Joyce long ago learn CPR, but his daughter currently is in EMT school and his
son, a coach back home in Beaverton, Ore., is certified in CPR.
"Just
knowing it, I think it's imperative," Joyce said. "You may never, ever, have to
use it.
"But it's just that one time that you do."
