Not So Perfect Ending

Last night, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers was one out from the 21st perfect game in MLB history (and the third this year). A simple ground ball to first, the toss over from miguel Cabrera to Galarraga and game over. Perfection. Oh wait, not so fast. The runner is called safe at first base and the perfect game and no-no are broken up.

It's a play that will remain with first base umpire Jim Joyce forever. He botched an easy call in a "big" situation. After the game, Joyce was really remorseful, saying "I just cost that kid a perfect game....It was the biggest call of my career. I don't blame them a bit or anything that was said." He went into the locker room and apologized to both Galarraga and Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

It's obviously a sucky situation, but here's my take on it. First, while owning up to the mistake won't change anything in the record books, it's the right thing to do. So often do we hear athletes, managers and umpires making excuses for themselves. Joyce admitted he blew the call. He thought it was right at the time, but then realized it wasn't. Second, I think the baseball world needs to calm down just a bit. I get it - perfect games and no-hitters are big deals (as can be seen by all the unwritten rules that surround them). Galarraga would have had his name in the record book and we would have forgotten about it within a year or two. I consider myself more informed than most when it comes to baseball history, but I can't name the last pitcher before Dallas Braden, Roy Halladay and Mark Buerhle to throw a perfect game (each was within the past year). I'll tell you what I can remember though - World Series champions. And that's the thing. Sure, it would have been a nice baseball moment for Galarraga to throw a perfect game. But it is no where as important as winning the World Series. Had Joyce botched this call in the World Series, then it's a BIG deal. But in regular season game #52, it's not that big of a deal. So everyone needs to get over it and move on. Galarraga is not a victim - he is a pitcher who just threw a 88 pitch complete game shutout. Detroit won.