The Perfect Lesson

DETROIT, MI - Only five days removed from the Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay's Perfect Game, we were close to seeing history again, this time in Detroit and by a much lesser known pitcher. Armando Galarraga, who is two years removed from a 13 win season with the Detroit Tigers, set down the Cleveland Indians first 26 batters, on Wednesday night, without allowing a hit, a walk, a hit by pitch, or anyone to reach base on an error...In other words, he was perfect through 8 2/3 innings. It was an amazing showcase of control and of getting the Indians to chase pitches early in the count. He only went to a three ball count on one hitter. Entering the 9th inning he only had thrown 75 pitches. Even though his strikeout total was low (only 3), he kept the Indians hitters off balance all game long. Mark Grudzielanek lead off the 9th and hit a ball to deep left center field that Austin Jackson ran down with an over the shoulder catch on the warning track. The next batter, Mike Redmond grounded out to shortstop Ramon Santiago to retire the 26th consecutive hitter of the game. Then, it all came down to the 27th hitter for the Indians, Jason Donald.

Donald worked a 1-1 count. On the third pitch of the at-bat, Donald grounds a ball weakly towards second base. First baseman Miguel Cabrera ranges far to his right, fields the ball as Galarraga is making his way to first to cover the bag. Cabrera plants his right foot and throws a perfect throw to Galarraga. Galarraga catches the ball, just as his right foot hits the bag, a half step before Donald's. Game over, Perfect Game for Galarraga! But wait...first base umpire Jim Joyce shocked everyone by calling Donald safe. Everyone, players, coaches, fans both at Comerica Park and watching on television or listening on the radio, are stunned. Cabrera started to celebrate, but then put both hands on his head in disbelief. Second baseman Carlos Guillen jumped up then stopped in his tracks. Galarraga began to celebrate then, after hearing the call looked at Joyce and just smiled. Manager Jim Leyland went out to argue the call, but did so mildly. The announcers, both on TV and on Radio could not believe it. Even radio analyst Jim Price, who rarely says anything bad, called it a "terrible call". Everyone knew Galarraga got robbed of the first Perfect Game in the history of the Detroit Tigers and the 21st in the history of baseball (third of the year and second in just five days). Galarraga retired the next hitter, Trevor Crowe, to end the game. Catcher Alex Avila and Galarraga embrace at the mound as Leyland goes right at Joyce to chew him out. What happened immediately following the game, and over the next few day, however, was truly amazing.

After the game Joyce, a 22-year veteran MLB umpire, who is also very highly rated and well respected by everyone in baseball, looked at the replay in the umpire's dressing room. He said it only took him one view of the replay to see he blew the call. He was extremely upset that he cost Galarraga a piece of history (Click on Joyce's Reaction to hear his comments after the game). He then went to the Tigers' clubhouse and sought out both Galarraga and Leyland to apologize. A class act for someone who just cost the player, club, and game a piece of history. Amazingly, the criticism for Joyce came and went pretty quickly, and the support for him started. Galarraga & Leyland both took the high road in not ripping into Joyce. Everyone just seemed sad that history was prevented by a bad call. The Tigers gave Galarraga a beer celebration anyway in the clubhouse and called it a "28 out Perfect Game".


The next day, the Tigers went out of their way to show public support for Joyce. Joyce had home plate duties on Thursday and was visibly teary eyed as he and the other umpires walked through the tunnel behind home plate, to the field to a cheer from the crowd. Leyland had Galarraga take the line up card out to the umpires. You could tell that Joyce was touched by the moment as he gave Galarraga a big pat on the shoulder. Cabrera, before making his way to first base, gave Joyce a pat on the chest. The Tigers handled everything classy, even presenting Galarraga with a new Chevy Corvette. The way everything was handled made me proud to be a Tigers fan.

The missed call immediately started a huge calling for the expansion of instant replay as well as whether or not the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, should award Galarraga with the Perfect Game. I am not really one that likes instant replay in baseball, however, I'm not naive to think that baseball doesn't need something in place to correct egregious errors like this. My hope is that Selig and MLB are careful with how they will expand replay and they won't rush to implement it before the right system is ready.

Selig ruled on Thursday that he would not overturn Joyce's call and give Galarraga the perfect game, which I agree with. It is very difficult to go back and overturn a call like that and would open up the possibility of the Commissioner overturning other calls that would directly effect outcomes of games. While there are many arguments on both sides of the coin, I still maintain Selig made the right call on this one.

It was truly a wild situation, none that we have ever seen before. Yes, Galarraga was robbed of his place in baseball immortality, but I think the way he handled the situation will make him be remembered far longer than if he had actually pitched a Perfect Game. The way he handled himself should serve as the perfect lesson on how to handle adversity, for all of us.