Home Plate

Jim Joyce is a 24-year veteran of Major League Baseball who is probably best known as the umpire who robbed Detroit's Armando Galarraga of a perfect game in 2010. Until now. Now his claim to fame will be something much more important -- saving the life of another human being. Joyce was walking through the tunnel at Chase Field on Monday with the other three members of the umpiring crew about 90 minutes before the Arizona Diamondbacks-Miami Marlins game when he saw a woman having a seizure.

In youth baseball, there are certain laws of the game. The kid who can't hit a lick will always be first in line for snacks. The hitter with the most expensive bat will almost always finish last in home runs. At almost any level, you can't buy a title - with equipment, with players. To even try futzes with the gods of baseball. In our Pony League, there are no million-dollar contracts - not yet, anyway. We pay our 9- and 10-year-olds in pizza that tastes like it was trod upon by Russian tanks, reward them with home-baked brownies that their sisters put their grubby fingers in, ply them with too warm watermelon.

Frank McCourt, the fourth-generation Bostonian who struck a deal in November to buy the Dodgers from News Corp. for $430 million, and his wife, Jamie, have purchased a Holmby Hills home for close to the $25-million asking price. The house is on 2.6 acres and has six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms in 20,000 square feet. The compound, described as a Palladian villa that was built in 1990 but completely refurbished in 2000, is at the end of a 600-foot-long gated drive.

The Angels are in the process of converting their press box to a luxury seating area that will feature upgraded dining opportunities and amenities for about 80 fans, a move that will push writers covering the team to a new press box down the right-field line in Angel Stadium. There will be no changes to the radio and television broadcast booths, which will remain on the club level behind home plate, or in the Diamond Club restaurant and seating areas on the lower level behind home plate.

OK, so how did I end up standing at home plate in Dodger Stadium with a pitching wedge in my hand and a golf ball at my feet? As far as I can recall, it all began months ago with me up in the stands, sipping a cold brew and letting my jock fantasies run wild. Under the right circumstances, could I hit a baseball out of the park? Given that I hit a total of one home run for my high school team, and that it happened 36 years ago, it seemed like a statistical improbability.

Professional baseball got off to a slow start in Southern California. So slow that in 1898, the San Jose Prune Pickers and the Santa Cruz Beachcombers were chosen over the Los Angeles Angels to join the California League. Imagine, depriving rival fans the joy of chanting "Beat L.A.!" But the Angels, their status no doubt elevated when they were purchased by a pool-hall operator, were granted a franchise in the newly organized Pacific Coast League in 1903.

Jim Horner might have been chasing crooks instead of fly balls this summer. An Academic All-American as a criminal justice major at Washington State, Horner almost applied for a job with the U.S. Marshal's Office before the season. "But I'll always have time to go for a 9-to-5 job," he said. "I figured I'd give baseball some time to pan out." So far, so good. Since being called up from Wisconsin during the all-star break, Horner has played in the outfield and at catcher. He is batting .

Steve Garvey, baseball's Mr. Congeniality, had never suffered the indignity of being kicked out of a game. Until Thursday night, that is. Garvey, a 16-year veteran, was ejected after the third inning of the Padres' 4-2 loss to Atlanta. He was arguing about the conclusion of an Atlanta triple play on a call at home. Bip Roberts had slid around catcher Ozzie Virgil and apparently touched home, but home plate umpire Charlie Williams called him out.

Quarter to three at sunny Palms Park. The umpire just drove up. He's the little man in blue wearing glasses, ol' Russ Fendley. Not as in old--he's only 48--but as in good ol' boy. He's from Alabama. They say the ball fields have a hold on him tighter than a sweetheart's. Or certainly a wife's. This life has already cost him two of those. Half an hour later, a La Quinta High School softball player slides into home plate ahead of the throw to the Artesia catcher. She looks safe.

Steve Garvey, the former Dodger and San Diego first baseman, will always remember June 30, 1983. That's the day his streak of playing in 1,207 consecutive games ended. Garvey's streak was surpassed by shortstop Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles, who extended his streak to 1,208 consecutive games, third-longest in major league history, Thursday night against the Toronto Blue Jays. Only Lou Gehrig, with 2,130, and Everett Scott, with 1,307, played more consecutive games.

Normally, baseball umpires are the ones who declare a rain delay if inclement weather comes during a game. But in Compton on Saturday it was the operators of Major League Baseball's Urban Youth Academy who were watching the skies for a predicted rainstorm from a Gulf of Alaska storm front. Had it turned rainy, the final exam for 54 fledgling umpires wrapping up a weeklong crash course in how to conduct baseball games would have been moved off a pair of ball fields and under cover, according to Rich Rieker, director of umpire development for MLB. Located on 10 acres next to El Camino College's Compton Center campus, the $10-million MLB-run sports complex features two big-league-size ball fields and two smaller softball fields.

Washington Nationals closer Tyler Clippard said the ninth-inning fastball he threw to Matt Kemp on Wednesday night was similar to many pitches he has thrown in his career. “That's a pitch for me that I've relied on a lot throughout my career, the elevated fastball,” Clippard said. “I felt like I put it where I wanted to, just below the letters.” But Kemp launched the 0-2 pitch over the center-field wall at Nationals Park, lifting the Dodgers to a 7-6 victory and earning them a split of the doubleheader.

Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander limited 20 of his first 28 opponents to three runs or less. The surging Angels on Saturday racked the American League's reigning Cy Young Award winner for four runs in the first inning, and left-hander C.J. Wilson outdueled him in a 6-1 victory. The Angels (76-63) have won 14 of their last 17 games and remain two games out of the American League's second wild-card spot with 23 games remaining. Rookie Mike Trout, in his first at-bat against Verlander, started the first by smoking a home run deep over the left-field wall -- Trout's 26th homer of the season.

Major League Baseball Umpire Jim Joyce made one of the most critical and  and fan-popular calls of his career the other night in Phoenix. But it had nothing to do with America's pastime. The 24-year veteran umpire rushed to perform life-saving CPR on a food service worker before the game this week between the Florida Marlins and the hometown Arizona Diamondbacks, Russ Amaral, vice present of ballpark operations, told the Los Angeles Times. Joyce, the game's umpire crew chief who was scheduled to call balls and strikes behind the plate, was walking down a ramp that leads to the umpire's dressing room when he spotted trouble, Amaral said.

  So Yankees Manager Joe Girardi was just minding his own business, giving a news conference Wednesday night after his team lost to the Chicago, completing a sweep by the White Sox. He's answering a reporter's question when in the distance he hears "Yankees swept? Yes!"  But he ignores it, and continues answering, when he starts to hear it again. And then Joe Girardi gets angry and stops his answer mid-sentence. "Hey, hey, shut up! We're doing an interview!" he says as he moves toward the guy. But that's not the best part.

Jim Joyce is a 24-year veteran of Major League Baseball who is probably best known as the umpire who robbed Detroit's Armando Galarraga of a perfect game in 2010. Until now. Now his claim to fame will be something much more important -- saving the life of another human being. Joyce was walking through the tunnel at Chase Field on Monday with the other three members of the umpiring crew about 90 minutes before the Arizona Diamondbacks-Miami Marlins game when he saw a woman having a seizure.

Can America's favorite pastime sustain a weekly TV series? Baseball has tried before, in both comedy ("Ball Four") and drama ("Bay City Blues"), but hopes are high as executive producers Mel Gibson and Aaron Spelling give the notion another shot. A family saga as well as the story of a ballclub, the sweetly old-fashioned CBS drama "Clubhouse" gets an advance premiere Sunday, two nights before settling into its regular Tuesday slot.

The cover of the Dodger media guide features the club's four consecutive rookies of the year--Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi and Hideo Nomo. Todd Hollandsworth could make it five in a row. Hollandsworth, whose rookie baserunning mistake possibly cost the Dodgers a run the previous night in a shutout loss, went four for five with three singles and a triple as the Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-5, Saturday night before 44,548 at Dodger Stadium.

Who says baseball isn't a contact sport? Well, umpire Greg Gibson certainly wouldn't think so after being knocked upside the head by Torii Hunter's spikes during a play at home plate in Wednesday night's game against the Cleveland Indians. Gibson, who was working behind home plate, had to leave the game after being knocked in the head by Hunter's foot as the veteran outfielder tried to score from first base on a double by Kendrys Morales in the fifth inning. Hunter, who was tagged out by Cleveland catcher Carlos Santana on the play, dove head first and reached a hand out to touch the plate, which he missed.

OAKLAND — Mike Trout of the Angels had already stolen two bases. It was clear he was itching to go again. But the pitcher was Oakland reliever Pedro Figueroa , a left-hander whose rapid slide-step delivery and catcher Derek Norris' strong arm prohibited such a dare. Trout nonetheless put his streak of 26 consecutive stolen bases on the line Monday. And was safe again. "He learns every day about getting better reads, he watches film, we go over all the pitchers' times from the mound to home plate," third base and baserunning coach Dino Ebel said Tuesday.