Obsessedsportsnut's Blog

The perfect game. One of sport’s greatest achievements. It’s a complete game. It’s a shutout. It’s a no-hitter. It’s a game when you dont walk anyone. No one reaches bases. 27 batters. 27 outs. perfection.

It’s only happened 18 times since 1900. Some of the greatest pitchers of all time have thrown a perfect game: Cy Young, Addie Joss, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, and Randy Johnson.

However, there is a whole list of “greatest pitchers” who have never thrown a perfect game: Walter Johnson, Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, and Phil Niekro…just to name a few.

If you throw a perfect game, you enter baseball immortality. You can retire the next day and never pitch again, and you will be forever remembered for that one single game.

Tonight, Armando Galaragga was one batter away from a perfect game. On the very last out of the game, Jason Donald hit a short grounder to the first baseman, who then proceeded to throw it back to Galaragga for the out at first. However, the 1st base umpire, Jim Joyce, incorrectly said that Donald was safe. As you can see from the picture below, Donald was clearly out.

And with that mistake, Galaragga “allowed a hit” and lost his perfect game. What a way to ruin a kid’s dream. After the game, Jim Joyce was clearly distraught over the fact that he made such a bad call. He clearly knew that he stole something away from Galaragga, and nothing that he could do would bring it back. After the game, he went into the Detroit locker room and apologized to Galaragga for his mistake. A very classy move. It’s not going to fix anything, but at least he manned up and admitted his mistakes.

Obviously, many fans are outrageous over this mistake. A lot of people have called for the commissioner, Bud Selig, to overturn the decision of the game, and retroactively grant Galaragga an official perfect game. This is a bad idea, and fortunately, will not happen. Referees are part of the game, and have a big impact on the game. Unfortunately, refs are human and are prone to making mistakes. Obviously they strive for perfection, but they will not be able to achieve it.

This is where instant replay comes in. Instant replay is the perfect way to help refs/umpires know if they made the correct call. Football allows for a “coaches challenge” where a coach can challenge any non-penalty play on the field: touchdowns, incomplete passes, interceptions, etc. Hockey uses it the most extensively out of all 4 majors sports. Any goal that is questionable is sent to the video goal judge to be reviewed, even without the coaches request. The NBA uses video replay on instances to see whether or not a shot beat the buzzer. Tennis uses a instant replay as well, where a player can challenge a judge’s decision on whether the ball hit the line or not on a shot.

Baseball has some form of video replay, but only on disputed home run instances, to see whether or not a ball is a homerun, or foul ball, or not. However, baseball needs to keep up with the times and expand their instant replay to include cases like this: if a batter is safe at the base or not. I can also see video replay covering disputed instances where the ball might be fair or not.

Now, obviously a coach can’t call for an instant replay on every single play, since that will be long and annoying (and we already dont want baseball games to drag on any longer). That’s where you take a page out of football and tennis’s playbook and only give the coach only one challenge a game. It’s a situation that will be pleasing and beneficial to everyone. If instant replay had been used today, Galaragga would have gotten his perfect game, and Joyce would have been redeemed. Everyone makes mistakes. Instant replay would have correctly caught these mistakes.

Its unfortunate that Galaragga couldnt secure his place in history. But I dont believe we should go back and change history and give it to him. What’s happened has happened. What this should be is a catalyst for change in the future. Bud Selig and the rest of the owners need to really look into expanding instant replay in the sport.

Galaragga will always be remembered as the “guy who almost had the perfect game but had it stolen from him”. Hopefully he’ll also be remembered as the person who changed the rules of the game for the better. Maybe 20 years down the road, some young pitcher will be in a similar situation where the umpire made an incorrect call, but instant replay bailed him out.

Hopefully he’ll have Armando Galaragga (and Jim Joyce) to thank,