Perfect Game Blown Call

By James Sheldon on June 3rd, 2010

It’s sports, and I’m me. Of course I’m writing about this. More so, it’s baseball, and I’m one of the last remaining purists.

Armando Galarraga. Had you heard of him before last night? What about Jim Joyce? They have forever been etched into baseball lore, and not because of one play, but 26 plays that took place preceding one play. The play. Without the 26 others, this one meant nothing.

Armando Galarraga is a 28 year-old right hander for the Detroit Tigers, and on Wednesday night, he was pitching the game of his life. Hitter up, hitter down. Hitter up, hitter down. So on and so forth for 26 consecutive batters. The 25th out was particularly dramatic–an over the shoulder grab in deep left-center field. It couldn’t get more dramatic than that to secure a perfect game, could it?

Batter number 27. The attempt for the perfect game. No walks, no hits, no errors…no runners on base for the Cleveland Indians. The ball was crisply hit to the first base side, fielded by Miguel Cabrera. He zipped the ball to the covering Gallaraga, and boom, the runner was out. Er, wait. No. The ump called him safe. Enter the written legacy of umpire Jim Joyce. After making the call, Gallaraga simply looked in Joyce’s direction, and smiled. What’s that mean? Yeah. He’s a better person than you.

In the world of sports, a great official is an invisible official. If you don’t know their name, and all things run as they should, officials (referees and umpires) are doing their job effectively and efficiently. What ensued after the blown call was an ongoing argument between Miguel Cabrera and Jim Joyce, as the Tigers worked through the 28th batter, allowing the base runner to steal 2nd and 3rd. #28 grounded out. Game over.

After the game, the argument continued. Joyce left the field, went immediately for the replay, and instantly realized his blunder. He picked up, went straight for the Tigers clubhouse and apologized to Gallaraga. Here’s a link to the MLB owned video of the blown call.

MLB is now reluctantly mulling an official review of the call. I say they can’t change the call. If you change this call, how about all the other ones that have been made? 1985 World Series? Royals vs. Cardinals? Game 6? The call was more significant than this one, and eerily similar. If they reverse this, do the Cardinals get a share of the ‘85 crown?

Bad calls are part of the game. My argument goes a little like this:

This play should have never been so close. In reality, it wasn’t, but it should have been an even easier out. Miguel Cabrera had NO BUSINESS fielding that ball. Why isn’t anyone making mention of this? He was overly aggressive, and took away a routine play from his second baseman. Seeing the replay makes it even more obvious.

On the positive side of things, sure it would have been nice for Gallaraga to score a perfect game. People would have chatted it up today, “this is the first time 3 perfect games have ever been pitched in a season,” and tomorrow it would have been back to business as usual. Now, Gallaraga is an overnight baseball sensation. People know who he is. More importantly, they know he can pitch. Most importantly, they know he’s a class act.

Of all the things you might sacrifice for potential career advancement and who knows, maybe even an endorsement deal for keeping your cool under pressure, I’d say a perfect game might be on the list. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.