The New Republic

Major League Baseball just has to correct this. The call was just too poor and unjust to let stand. In addition, the other umpires should have huddled and corrected this call on the field while there was still time. Do the rules of the game allow a remedy ?

- alanwilkov

June 2, 2010 at 11:00pm

The game knows. Armando Galarraga was denied a place in baseball's records, but his equanimity has secured his place in its history.

- kpidcoc

June 2, 2010 at 11:05pm

If the umpire saw the replay as he claimed, why did he not reverse the call? Baseball should expand its instant replay to include more than home runs. I wonder what the game's purists like George Will and Keith Olberman (strange bedfellows, that) think of the injustice done to that poor pitcher.

- scrubby

June 3, 2010 at 12:10am

Now Dan Denkinger can die in peace. More to the point, Gallaraga will now be far more legendary than even a real perfect game. He's only the 2nd player in history to record 28 straight outs in a game. In some respect's he's the 21st century equivalent of the most famous perfect game of them all: Harvey Haddix's "Unlucky 13" in 1959. Don't change it, the game of baseball is about the people on the field and the infallibility of man, including the umpire. It's a story we'll always tell, and something we'll always remember. That's worth more than a spot in a record book, and more worthwhile than sending the ump to a tv after every bang bang play at first base or home plate.

- Crock1701

June 3, 2010 at 12:35am

What a travesty. The batter clearly was out.

- liberal reformer

June 3, 2010 at 2:19am

Like the batter who decides to swing (or not) before the pitch is thrown, Joyce had made the decision to call the runner safe before the runner had hit the ball. For those who spend lots of time watching and coaching baseball (as I do), this is a common experience. The mind takes over for the eyes and "sees" what the mind believes it will see. For those who believe judges are mere impartial umpires who observe the facts and apply the law to the facts, watch that play at first base and then consider whether judges have already "seen" the facts and applied the law before reading the briefs and listening to the oral argument.

- rayward

June 3, 2010 at 7:21am

In the typical game, the first-base umpire blows two or three close calls. It's part of the game. Usually, the call is blown the other way; safe batters are called out. I've seen two perfect games and more no-hitters than I can remember, and in all of them obvious-on-replay safe batters have been called out or home plate umps have been unwilling to call ball four on any pitch not in the dirt. There are, in short, no perfect games. There are only games in which all of the umps' blown calls favor the pitcher. And please, for the love of George Wright, let this incident not lead to the introduction of more instant replay in baseball. The last thing baseball needs is more committee meetings on the field. Let football remain the only sport where fans are forced to watch a court of appeals hold arguments and render a decision. It's a shame for the pitcher that he didn't get an official perfect game, but this is just one game in a 162-game season, the call didn't affect the outcome of the game, and a pitcher is not owed special deference just because he caught the breaks in the first 6 or 7 or 8 innings.

- rhubarbs

June 3, 2010 at 8:09am

scrubby, Joyce wouldn't have seen the replay until well after the game was over, and folks had headed home. Apparently after seeing the replay he sought out Galarraga to admit and apologize, which is more than a lot of umps would have done. The other umpires could have conferred to consult on the play, and indeed have done so and reversed far less controversial plays in the past; I have no idea why they didn't this time. Probably more important to save face than to get the call right on the verge of something historic (a potential third perfect game of the season, second in less than a week), or something equally cynical.

- cspencef

June 3, 2010 at 12:43pm

My undergrad anthropology project on the jurisprudential attitudes of minor-league umpires finally pays off! (Seriously.) Umps are rarely willing to question colleagues unless another ump has a legitimate claim to have been in better position to see the play than the ump who made the call. Since the umps on the field had no access to televised replay, and since none of them were closer to or had a better angle on the play at first than Joyce, it would have been a serious breach of custom for the rest of the crew to have sought to overrule Joyce. And no doubt the crew was also sensitive to the appearance of giving special deference to the pitcher due to the perfecto being on the line.

- rhubarbs

June 3, 2010 at 1:19pm