Seriously, Bud Selig. If you needed any more evidence that instant replay is a necessity in the MLB, Jim Joyce just provided it for you in ample form.
By displaying the incompetence of the "human element" of baseball in a gut-wrenchingly vivid fashion, Joyce cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga what would have been the third perfect game of 2010, and only the 21st ever, by executing one of the most egregiously blown calls since the infamous Don Denkinger safe call at first base in the 1985 World Series.
With two outs in the ninth, Galarraga found himself one out away from a perfect game. When 1st baseman Miguel Cabrera fielded a Jason Donald sharp grounder and tossed the ball to the pitcher on the bag, clearly ahead of the throw, celebration was about to ensue. But the euphoria quickly turned to complete dismay as Jim Joyce missed what he dubbed "the biggest call of his career."
Yes, Joyce has apologized. He feels terrible about costing Galarraga what would have likely been the high point of the pitchers' career. Bud Selig — using his sweeping powers as commissioner — could even overturn the call and award Armando the honor he rightly earned. But none of that changes what happened on the field. Nothing retroactive can return to the young pitcher the place in baseball history that was stolen from him. The only good that can come from this baseball atrocity is the possibility of it serving as a wakeup call to finally force the hand of Selig on instant replay. The purist be damned. There was nothing pure about what happened at Comerica Park on Wednesday night.
"I just cost that kid a perfect game," Joyce said. "I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw until I saw the replay."
Until he saw the "replay." Let me repeat and reiterate; the umpire was incapable of getting the call correct until he "saw the replay." How much more blatantly obvious does it get? The answer is in the words of the offender. Baseball cannot allow this to happen again. The play at first wasn't even close and yet there was no discussion amongst the umpires, no thought of overturning the call. The game simply went on as Galarraga retired his 28th batter in row and secured his one-hit victory.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
On this same night, replay was used to rightfully award the Flyers a goal scored that the human referees missed. Hope MLB does the right thing.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Okay, I think I can talk about it now.
The BP oil leak didn't change people's minds about offshore drilling, which is why it was futile to try to make a point out of a travesty. In the baseball world ... same thing. People are going to think what they think, and there's a great case for instant replay, but purists are just going to say blown calls are part of the game, and stolen perfect games are part of the game. They'll say it doesn't change how well Armando inexplicably pitched (holy crap ... 88 pitches).
I think back to when the NFL began calling the coin toss before the flip simply because one referee misheard "heads" for "tails." I'm like, c'mon guys, we ALWAYS call it in the air. What are the odds of this happening again?
So I understand the sentiment, Anthony, but these replay arguments would be better made when not singling out one incident as THE reason for it. You and I both know there are other reasons.
Applause on the Ray Charles ASIN inclusion.
3 - John Wilson
Jim Joyce? Is he the same guy who told the Israelis to invade that flotilla?
4 - Tony
Matt, I realize there are a lot of good reasons to use replay. As I said in the article, Joyce's call should be the tipping point. While there have been many instances in regular season games where replay should have been used this is easily the most public and prolific example in a long time. Probably since the 1985 call cost the Cards the World Series.
And John, yes I believe he was the mastermind behind that debacle.
5 - Victor Lana
James Joyce, author of Ulysses, and basically blind as a bat, could have made a better call. This happened in June but at least not on Bloomsday, or that would have been even more than weird.