In one quick moment, Armando Galarraga went from celebrating the 21st perfect game in Major League Baseball history to agony when Jim Joyce missed the call at first base.
It was a horrible call.
But to credit Joyce and the Detroit Tigers have handled the call with class and sportsmanship.
Joyce came out and apologized after seeing the replay and personally sought out Galarraga to apologize that evening. Joyce even declined the option to not work home plate the next day and was forward handling all the criticism.
Umpires
If this was just one blown call by the umpires over the last couple of seasons, than it wouldn’t have been such an issue. But this is just one in a series of horrible calls by the umpires over the last couple of years.
Umpiring has become worse and they have become lazy. Lately Joe West and Angel Hernandez have gotten worse and are giving umpires throughout the game a bad name. Now I won’t get into the balls and strikes calls except just to say that umpires are consistently inconsistent in how they are calling balls and strikes these days.
Now umpires bring a human element into the game and that is quite important to the game. But on big calls, replays should be used on a wider scale than they are already used now for home runs and fan interference.
MLB
Bud Selig and Major League Baseball made a tremendous mistake and not fixing this issue. I’m usually not in favor of overruling an official on the field after the game, but this situation was unique.
This was the last out of the game. There was nothing that would have happened after it. If this hadn’t been the last out, there are too many other factors that could have influenced what happened.
Selig could have easily fixed this and ruled that it was an out and a perfect game for Galarraga. But he took the easy way out.
Future
Major League Baseball has a big problem on their hands with umpires. The quality of the umpires has declined over the years and many of them have an attitude towards the players. They need to remember that a good official is one that is not remembered or seen during the game.
Major League Baseball also needs to explore the best use of replay for the game that won’t slow the game down, but that helps get calls correct. When the fans can see that there is a bad or incorrect call on TV, it just hurts the game more.
I love the game of baseball and we need to ensure that it is played and judged on the highest level.
Mile High Soapbox 