The Less Than Perfect Game
Many have weighed in on Armando Galarraga’s near perfect game – and this is my 50 cents worth! I feel that MLB should award Galarraga a perfect game. This is, for any baseball purist (and I consider myself one) , heresy. Baseball is an imperfect sport, that lives with the close calls that can go either way. But I also believe in the sanctity of the unforgettable moments, and I’ve felt for years that Roger Maris was unfairly maligned by a tiny punctuation mark. Here’s my multitude of reasons that the perfect game should be awarded.
It wasn’t a close call, it was a blown call. This may sound like the same thing, but it isn’t at all to me. Let’s consider something. This was the 32nd time in history that a 27th batter came to the plate after the first 26 batters had been retired. 9 of the previous 31 times, the pitcher failed to retire the 27th batter, so there should never…EVER…be a margin for error at a moment like this. And Joyce’s explanation that he couldn’t see where Galarraga’s foot was….give me a break. It wasn’t exactly an unexpected movement, and it was a routine play. This is possibly the worst case of umpire error that I’ve ever seen, and I’m including the Darrell Porter and Reggie Jackson World Series calls. Completely, and totally unacceptable.
Reversing the call doesn’t affect the outcome of the game. As the following batter was retired, there was no change that affects the net result to either team. Additionally, the hitter who reached base was a reserve player who would be nowhere near the leaders in any statistical category.
Power should never be absolute. There’s no doubt that it’s a major quandry to ever overturn an umpire’s call when it would set a major precedent, as this would. But there’s collateral damage to NOT reversing the call. As it was clear that the Commissioner’s Office would not intervene (don’t get me started on Bud Selig), it also was ominously clear throughout the season that several umpires suddenly became firmer in their decisions, and lighter in making sure they were the right ones. The Mark Buerhele-Joe West battles over balks this year was outrageous, and doubtless fuelled by West’s knowledge that Joyce’s bonehead moment had made the office of umpire untouchable. As much as I agree with the chance of mistakes happening to be part of the game – I also don’t want the umpiring crews to start deciding games either.
Fans should have faith in the game. Rules are rules, but right is right, as well. For all of us who have seen this play a hundred or more times, everyone knows that Donald was out. Period. And no amount of tears from Joyce, or forgiveness by Galarraga, changes the fact that everyone knows the 27th batter was out. By accepting that this is not a perfect game, we bring shame to the sport. We look at a legion of young fans and tell them, hey, it’s okay to make a mammoth mistake, and you don’t even have to take responsibility for it if you shed a few tears and ask for forgiveness. I’m not saying that Joyce should not be forgiven – he should. But to me, forgiveness is not upholding his call. Forgiveness is letting him keep his job. Baseball is a sport. Sport involves sportsmanship and fair competition. You can never separate these two things. But by upholding the call, MLB has done just that.
There would be less controversy. Really, there would be. In the end, who would argue it? Sure, there would be some initial fuss from ultra-purists who believe you can never overturn an umpire’s decision. But 50 years from now, we’re still going to talk about this blown call. I’d be willing to bet that we would be less likely to do so if the Perfect game is awarded. Why? Because when a young fan, 50 years from now, asks “how can you ever overturn an umpire’s call after a game is played?”, the answer is simple. Show him the tape. He or she will nod their head and say…justice was done. Think they’ll say that if the game is not awarded?
Did we even get the wrong call right? In all the umpiring fuss, this is a bit lost on me – why hasn’t Galarraga at least gotten credit for a no-hitter? Joyce’s explanation was that Galarraga’s foot was off the bag, but he was there – whether he touched it or not – nearly a full stride ahead of Jason Donald. If he MISSED the bag, isn’t there a strong argument for this being E-1, and not a hit? Failing to touch the bag is a fielder’s error, not a batter beating out a hit. Fielding calls are frequently changed throughout the game, so it’s strange that this topic has never surfaced in all the debate.
In summary – this was one of the most unique moments in baseball history. The Porter and Jackson plays decided games – which is wrong – but because outcomes were affected, there really isn’t anything that can be done about it. But this is not the case here. No outcomes would be affected in the end. And the fallout for baseball is still, in my humble view, far worse by just leaving it alone. Give the young man his perfect game. He pitched it. He deserved it. The whole world can see he deserved it. Stop making the game a laughingstock and make an exception for the sake of what is simply, right.
The Last Expos Fan 
If the rules were to be changed in the next few years, then his game is a pure case to be considered for reversal of the call.
But with the way the rules are as of today (1/31/2011), it has to stay at the conclusion that is written in black and white. But then again, its popularity will grow with age not die down and get toseed under a rock.
Everytime there is a blown play in a close game, or a situation robbed from a pitcher, the incident will come to light again.
Change the rule and change the outcome and there is no focal point for the masses to point to in times of…argument.
But all in all, as long as we know,and Galarraga knows the truth….it is an always growing baseball legend.
Rays Renegade
http://raysrenegade.mlblogs.com
True…but that’s my point in saying that “fans need to have faith in the game”. If it was close and in the speed of the game a call was found to be wrong..that’s one thing. But this wasn’t close…it was a blown call. There is no reply that shows it to be close. The Milt Pappas game in 1972, where a close ball four ended a perfect game on the 27th batter – no way you can ever consider overturning that, short of a ball being short-hopped to the catcher! But this one – there’s not a debate. Official scorers make changes mid-game all the time; baseball has already used instant replay to determine home runs; this is not as big a deal as we all make it out to be, really.
You make a good argument, but in the end, I think it should stand as is. One point that I think should be brought up more is the way Miguel Cabrera played the ball. If he would have gone to the bag and let the second baseman catch the ball and make the throw over, the runner would have been out by three steps (yes, he was out anyway, but on a closer play). Watch the replay again, it would have been a routine play.
http://wrigleyregular.mlblogs.com/
Greetings Last Expos Fan—
This was an interesting read and you make fair arguments, but I must ultimately disagree, and I’ll address what you’re saying point by point.
It wasn’t a close call, it was a blown call – True, and Jim Joyce certainly admitted as much. But I have to disagree with your assertion that there should never be a margin for error on the 27th batter in a perfect game. Why should that be a more important call than a call that changes the outcome, or even the momentum of a game? Umpires should strive to be right all the time, on both the important and mundane calls.
Reversing the call doesn’t affect the outcome of the game – All the more reason not to do it, because, and I’ll touch more on the “precedent” argument in a bit, I’m sure you can think of a game where the outcome of the game was changed by an umpire’s call. The Pine Tar game for instance—which was overturned, but in my opinion shouldn’t have been. The rules were clear enough and the original umpires made the correct decision.
Power should never be absolute – This I will not argue, there should be standards that umpires have to live by. But I doubt that the Joe Wests of the world were emboldened by Selig’s refusal to overturn Joyce’s call. The problem of arrogant and untouchable umpires has been a problem for some time, long before Galarraga’s perfect game, and baseball needs to address it.
But in the case of collateral damage, I still think it is worse to set a precedent by overturning a call. My first reaction to the demand to overturn the call was that of an Orioles fan—is it does get overturned, I want Jeter’s home run in the 1996 ALCS overturned because it was blatantly obvious that Jeffrey Maier reached over and caught what would have clearly been an out. Not only did that affect the outcome of the game, I still maintain that Rich Garcia blew that call on purpose. He had a clear view of it and called it wrong anyway. Remember, this was shortly after the Alomar spitting incident, and the umpires were very unhappy with the Orioles coming to Alomar’s defense.
Sorry for the bitter rant, but you can imagine if baseball decided to overturn bad calls. Fans might demand it all the time.
Fans should have faith in the game – It’s my opinion that the officials in baseball, while certainly flawed, do a FAR better job than in any other major sport; this call doesn’t change that.
Think of it the other way; what if Donald was clearly safe and Joyce called him out? Would fans be clamoring for that to be overturned? My guess is I doubt it. In Mickey Mantle’s autobiography, he talked about Don Larsen’s perfect game. It ended on a called third strike that he believed from his angle (granted, from center field) was a bad call. Imagine the response if Dodgers fans began clamoring for that call to be overturned.
I’m only speculating but my guess is that Jim Joyce was determined to get calls right, to not let possibly being a part of history impair his judgment, that he ended up getting the call wrong. I would rather an umpire have Jim Joyce’s attitude than that of Rich Garcia or the umpire who called the third strike in Larsen’s perfect game.
There would be less controversy – I can’t say one way or the other. All I can say is to refer to my rant about the 1996 ALCS. To establish a historic moment is not a reason to overturn even a mistaken call; calls that actually affected the outcome of an important game would then be rehashed.
Did we even get the wrong call right? – An interesting sub-argument. I don’t know that pitchers often get charged with errors for missing the bag, although I could be wrong on that. Think of this though, if Galarraga does get charged with an error, then he himself would be responsible for his perfect game being ruined, not Jim Joyce. I’m all for forgiving Joyce too, but that is what should be the call.
I agree that it’s a horrible Harvey Haddix-level bad break for Galarraga, but after his taking the lineup card out to Jim Joyce the next day and patting him on the back, I thought he showed a tremendous amount of class, and I will always be a fan of his for that gesture. In the end, we sometimes take the game too seriously, and after the tragedy of Donnie Moore, it was heartwarming to see this outpouring for an umpire who clearly hurt for his mistake more than the pitcher who lost a chance at history. (My father, a lifelong baseball fan, called it “baseball’s finest hour”.) The moral of the Galarraga story, in my humble opinion, should be that of forgiveness and respect, and also that this sport attracts some really first-class folks to participate in the game.
You write a mean post though, and I appreciate your passion. I saw an Expos game in their last season and actually had a fine time. Awful venue, but I wish baseball could have stayed in Montreal.
Best Regards,
Kurt Smith
http://www.BallparkEGuides.com
Thanks for your comments Kurt – I appreciate them. And I agree on the Jeter homer as well!
I think the thing with this that makes me passionate is the magnitude of the mistake and the ease it would take to fix the issue. The fact that Joyce acknowledged his mistake just accelerates the reason to award the perfect game. I believe in forgiving him too. But in the business world, forgiveness would mean being allowed to keep your job and say “yes sir, no sir” to the powers that be. This is a situation like that. But my most powerful reason for wanting it overturned is the idea that “fans need to have faith in the game”. The hard part with the Jeter call is that overturning it means you have to go back and replay it from that point on in order to fix it – which borders on the impossible. Same as Darrell Porter and Reggie Jackson doin’ the bump. This, though, is the most unique of situations. Nothing changes in the standings, or the stats, by making the change, so the damage of overturning is not just minimal, it’s non-existent. Once again, I’m 100% in support of the sanctity of the call. But this is the moment that MLB could truly make an exception, and do the right thing. Bud Selig, as usual, has done the wrong thing.
I do agree that every call should be as important as the one before, or after. But I also think that when we’re at out #27, an event that has happened 32 times in baseball history (I’m including all players that recorded the first 26 and then either retired #27, or gave up a hit, or had to press into extra innings only to lose the perfect game), in a period spanning 130 years…gosh, you’ve got to be at the absolute height of concentration.
And I have the world of respect for Orioles fans, btw 🙂 When you go to the Hall of Fame, it’s clear that the heroes of Baltimore are respected as much as any team’s heroes. I met a few wonderful Oriole fans while I was waiting for Fergie Jenkins autograph at Cooperstown last July ( a super guy, our Fergie ) and it just heightened my respect for the franchise. Thanks again for taking the time to read it all through!
It was truly a historic anecdote, moment and instance in baseball. Rarely do those come along, but Galarraga’s near perfect game was definitely that. Chances are we won’t see anything like that happen again, which makes you think if Galarraga would rather it have happened. The significance it took on for him not achieving it, was more than it would have been if he achieved actually it, is what I mean.
There is also something to be said about the baseball purist view that Jason Donald, being rewarded for hustling down the line deserved the hit just as much as Galarraga deserved the out. Statisticians are always trying to devise ways to calculate how speed, baserunning and how hustle can affect the game. Donald making it a semi-close call should have been rewarded because baseball umpiring, in its nature, is an imperfect duty. Also, players that can consistantly test the umps (whether the call be accurate or not) have their place in the world of baseball statistics.
Although, here I am just playing devils advocate. If there were any call that baseball should reverse, and I’m totally not a fan of baseball reversing calls, it should be that one. The outcome became inconsequential, so it would be easy to reverse with not a lot of scrutiny. You make a great case and I agree with everthing you said, it wasn’t even a close call … you are right about that. I’d be on the fence about them reversing the call, but you do make a convincing case.
Its too bad that the 1994 strike and the lack of downtown stadium did in the Expos. I would have loved to see the model for the proposed stadium in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, but it was destroyed from a break-in. I still think baseball in Montreal could work with a downtown stadium, although I’d like to see another minor-league team there first. Great read.
http://homerfoodandhistory.mlblogs.com
I’m writing a post on the Commish, to be published soon. He alone is culpable for the loss of baseball in Montreal, and if he had had his way, one of the great present success stories of MLB, the Minnesota Twins, would not exist today. It’s interesting that there were nothing but boos raining down on him at this summer’s induction ceremony at Cooperstown…it’s only real baseball fans that go to the Induction weekend, so it’s refreshing to know that most real fans also know what a complete train wreck he’s been for baseball.