Who Is The Umpire In The Geico Baseball Commercial With Ken Griffey Jr.?

GEICO Insurance definitely knows how to charm its customers with off-the-wall advertisements, whether they're using their signature Gecko character or a string of celebrities. One of their most recent ads features former big league slugger Ken Griffey Jr. and his wife, Melissa. During the commercial, they move into a brand-new home. Their suburban bliss is soon disturbed by their neighbor — an umpire, who proceeds to literally call a strike on Griffey Jr. for everything from the way he rakes leaves to the shirt he's wearing. Ultimately, the umpire and Melissa Griffey spar over Griffey Jr.'s sense of style. Griffey Jr. pulls his wife away from the fight as the umpire insists she's "out of here."

While most fans will easily recognize baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. from his athletic career — and if they don't, they likely remember his role in "The Simpsons" episode that saved the lives of two siblings, "Homer at the Bat" — the umpire in the ad is also a Major League Baseball legend. It's real-life umpire Jim Joyce calling foul on the Griffeys.  And it turns out the ad is only broadening his public profile.

"This has caught me by surprise, to be honest with you," Joyce admitted to MLB's Intentional Talk program regarding the resurgent level of interest in him, as seen on their Instagram account in October 2023. "I think it's actually kinda cool."  

Joyce is an umpire with a 40-year career under his belt, having begun calling games in 1977 until his retirement in 2017. His time on the diamond was marked by one particular incident which has caused him to live in infamy to this day.

To baseball fans, Jim Joyce will always be remembered for one thing — a bad call he made that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010. When he declared Cleveland Indians shortstop Jason Donald safe thanks to his on-the-fly observation from first base, he was anguished to note that a replay showed Donald was, in fact, out.

This resulted in him being subjected to death threats, which also rained down upon his daughter Keri and son Jimmy. Joyce personally apologized for the call to Galarraga, who accepted his mea culpa and told him it would be all right — he's a human being, and human beings make mistakes. "It's almost worse than my dad's death. That's how bad I felt," Joyce told ESPN in 2020. "I don't want to be known as Jim Joyce, the guy that blew the perfect game. But I think that's inevitable."

Joyce went on to call many games after the contest between the Tigers and the Indians, and ended up topping the ESPN: The Magazine Baseball Confidential best umpire poll in 2010. Now, thanks to Joyce's new GEICO commercial, baseball fans will have a whole new reason to remember him.