No No-No

Well, it's been awhile since I posted and some of you have been asking for a post, so I figure today is as good of a day as any with the topics I have at my disposable.

I wanted to talk about the Tigers/Indians baseball game last night and the perfect game by Armando Galarraga. Wow! Another perfect game this month! That never happens and it's very exciting to see. Of course none of us technically saw it because Jim Joyce (I suppose trying to play spoiler and be a jackass) called Donald safe at first on an an infield hit to first base. Let's deconstruct these proceedings for a moment.

First, the guy has not only a no-hitter going, but a perfect game to boot. If you're unfamiliar with the difference A) you're not a baseball fan, and B) the difference is that in a perfect game the pitcher faces the minimum of 27 batters, whereas in a no-hitter the pitcher can walk or hit a batter, or an error in the field can occur putting runners on base, but if an actual hit is not recorded, it's still a "no-hitter". Furthermore, it's possible to throw a no-hitter and still lose a game. Having explained all that, my point is that when a guy is pitching a perfect game you give him the call on a bang/bang play. Don't make me explain a bang/bang play or I may injure myself. Last night's play was close, but I'm not even sure I would consider it bang/bang. Okay, bang/bang means it's too close to call. Obviously it's easy to say that when we all see the tape later and the play is slowed down (the umpire admitted his mistake after seeing said slowed-down tape); HOWEVER, I was actually watching it unfold LIVE and I thought he was out - I would have made the correct call and about a million people would have agreed with me, including the 40,000+ in CoMerica Park who were going crazy and the Indians players on the bench... bringing me to my next point...

It's a hometown crowd, hometown pitcher, hometown official scorekeeper. Why wasn't that just scored an error so that at least he could get the next batter out and we could have yet another no-hitter this year. No-hitters are not easy to come by and less so are perfect games. Granted we have been spoiled this year, but to spoil one that was earned is a travesty, so I just think if I was scoring, screw the batter's average, screw Galarraga's or Cabrera's fielding percentage - here is your chance to make it right. The only reason I'm suggesting this is because I assume if Joyce didn't think the play was bang/bang which it probably wasn't, then he must have thought Galarraga missed the bag, maybe because of an errant throw - that's an error if I'm scoring. And really, who hits an infield single to first base in the big leagues??? What is this, beer league softball? I couldn't hit an infield single to 1B in my softball league to save my life (without an error) - I just don't have the leg to run it out and I'm pretty damn fast - and my base paths are 60ft, theirs are 90!!!

Now to my comment about Jim Joyce being a jackass and playing spoiler - I can justify that. In the moments following the blown call (which by the way would have been the 3rd out in the ninth inning, ending the game) Tigers 1B Miguel Cabrera was jawing back-and-forth with the umpire while Galarraga was collecting his final out. In one camera close-up of Joyce's face, I saw his lips motion the words, "what, you expect me just to give it to him?" No, jackass, just do your job and make the right call. I saw it, 40,000 saw it, you get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to see it - so see it. A comment like that just makes me think you consider Galarraga's effort to cover 1st base unmerited because you think he must not have "earned" it and you would have to "give it to him" for it to be so... wow, that sucks.

Finally... Selig. Allan Bud Selig. He is the commissioner of baseball and he has the power to overturn the call and put the perfect game down in the annuls of history. Remember, it was a 3-0 ballgame, so we're not talking about affecting standings, just the fact that the kid gets his perfect game. The only stats to be changed would be Donald's batting average (I'm sure he wouldn't mind - I mean did you see the kid grab his helmet in disbelief after being called safe? Even HE kinda wanted to or expected to be OUT) and Galarraga's W+H/IP which no one cares about anyway and would actually go DOWN, so you wouldn't hear much arguing there either.

I am all for the human element and all of that, but the bottom line is the guy blew the call. That said, it's over and the Tigers still got the win. We've all made mistakes at our jobs and Jim Joyce, malicious or not, made a big one. Maybe he should get suspended or fined, but that's where I draw the line. I am not one of those guys that encourages writing emails threatening someone's life (see: Don Deckinger, 1985 World Series). Let's not go down that road, America, and I think so far the city of Detroit has been quite gracious in "defeat".

Now... will this call get reversed? Will this play change the future of instant replay and its impact on baseball forever? Who's to say? The only man that knows is Bud Selig and we know about his track record of doing the right thing...