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.

A Perfect Experience

MIAMI, FLORIDA - Last weekend, I went on a trip to visit some good friends in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Doug Frimodig and I go way back to 6th grade, where we first met in the halls of Bullock Creek Middle School, in Midland, Michigan. The one thing that brought us together was our mutual love of sports, especially baseball. We went to numerous Detroit Tigers games as kids. As young as the age of 16, when we got our driver's licenses, we would drive down to old Tiger Stadium several times a summer, to take in some baseball. We have traveled to Wrigley Field in Chicago together to watch a game, as well as to Milwaukee to witness Mark McGwire make history with his 65th homerun in that magical summer of 1998. The last game we saw together was Game 4 of the 2006 American League Divisional Series. The mighty New York Yankees were on the verge of being eliminated by the Detroit Tigers. I was able to get some tickets and Doug drove all the way up from Virginia, where he was living at the time. Many forces had to align for that experience to happen and it did. It ranked, for both of us, as the single greatest sporting event we had ever seen in person...until Saturday, May 29, 2010, that is...

Doug and I had talked about seeing the Philadelphia Phillies play the Florida Marlins on Saturday night at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. We weren't entirely sure if we were going or not, but decided to go as the day progressed. We knew it would be a good pitching match up as Roy Halladay of the Phillies was taking on Josh Johnson of the Marlins. Halladay has been a great pitcher for the last several years. He came over to the Phillies this past off season from the Toronto Blue Jays. Johnson, is a young, up and coming pitcher, for the Marlins. We knew it would be a low scoring, pitcher's duel but what happened next, was truly unexpected.

The game started out with both pitchers in control. In the 3rd inning, the Phillies got on the board when Wilson Valdez (playing for the injured Jimmy Rollins) singled. Then Chase Utley hit a a line drive to center field that Cameron Maybin started in on, then went back too late. The ball hit off of Maybin's glove and rolled all the way to the wall. Valdez scored from first and Utley ended up on third base. The run was an unearned one, and turned out to be all that Halladay needed.

When the game went into the 4th innning, I elbowed Doug and pointed to the scoreboard. I said to him, "See what's going on right now?" He just shook his head and said, "Yep". We were careful not to say the words "Perfect Game" in fear of the jinx. We noticed early on that Halladay was keeping the ball low and had great command of his pitches. It appeared that we were on our way to witnessing a historic night, but you just never know in baseball, anything can happen.

The game moved on into the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings and still no hits or walks were given up by Halladay. As he retired hitter after hitter, we felt the excitement building. It was after the last hitter in the 7th when we knew perfection was within reach.

Halladay's last hitter in the bottom of the 7th inning was Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez who is one of the best players in all of baseball, and posed a huge obstacle for Halladay. If he could get passed Ramirez, his chances for a Perfect Game would increase tremendously. You could feel the excitement and tension building in the stadium as Halladay fell behind Ramirez, three balls and two strikes. Halladay's next pitch is a fastball that hits the inside part of the plate. Home plate umpire Mike DiMuro calls strike three as Ramirez stands at the plate in disbelief. We stood in disbelief as well, knowing we were witnessing something special. After Ramirez struck out, we started to alert everyone we could think of that a Perfect Game was happening, right before our eyes. As fans of the game of baseball first and foremost, we knew exactly how rare and historic a feat this would be, but only if Halladay could retire the next six hitters.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, the Marlins had Jorge Cantu, Dan Uggla, and Cody Ross up. Cantu hit a weak ground ball to third, Uggla struck out looking, and Ross popped out to shortstop. Twenty-four batters up, 24 batters down. Perfection was indeed within reach.

As the Phillies hitters are retired in order in the top of the 9th, the crowd of 25,086 stand as Halladay takes the mound one last time to try and write his place in history. The crowd, which had a lot of Phillies fans, was getting loud as the Marlins played their rally song to begin the 9th, hoping for a hit. The game was well within reach as Philadelphia held a slim, 1-0 lead. Luckily for Halladay, he was facing the bottom third of the order.



Mike Lamb lead off the inning. Lamb, pinch hitting for catcher Brett Hayes, hit a deep fly ball center field. Center Fielder, Shane Victorino was driven all the way back to the edge the warning track to make the catch for out number one. It was the longest hit ball of the night. Next up, veteran Wes Helms, who was pinch hitting for Maybin. Halladay worked Helms to a 1-2 count before throwing a low fastball on the inside corner that caught Helms looking for out number two. It was Halladay's 11th strikeout of the game. Now, all that was left between Halladay and perfection was another pinch hitter, Ronny Paulino.



As Paulino was walking to the plate, Doug and I are the most excited we have ever been at a sporting event. We could not believe our luck. What started out as two friends going to watch a baseball game on a nice night in South Florida with no real interest in who wins or loses, we were now completely immersed in what we were seeing and hoping to be a part of history. The crowd is standing up all around us in anticipation.

Paulino works the count to one ball and two strikes. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Paulino hits a weak grounder toward the shortstop. Third baseman Juan Castro, playing for the injured Placido Polanco, moves to his left, picks up the slow roller, spins and throws to first baseman Ryan Howard to retire Paulino.


Halladay has his Perfect Game. Only the 20th Perfect Game in 130 plus years of Major League Baseball. Amazing. After the final out was made, Doug and I gave each other a high five and started yelling and applauding with the crowd. We truly were in shock that we had witnessed a piece of history, one that we will surely never be a part of in person, for the rest of our lives.

It was truly a historic and great night. One that neither Doug nor I, will ever forget for the rest of our lives. Thank you Roy Halladay for providing us with a perfect experience.