The perfect game is indeed a special and rare moment in baseball lore. Only 20 pitchers have completed the feat in Major League history, including all time greats like Sandy Koufax and Catfish Hunter, a future (insane) congressman in Jim Bunning, and completely average pitchers such as Mike Witt, Len Barker, and Charlie Robertson.
Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from joining that exclusive club Wednesday night as he faced the Cleveland Indians. 26 up. 26 down.
2010 has already been a special year for pitchers. Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies no-hit the Atlanta Braves on April 17th. Dallas Braden of the Oakland A's and Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies both pitched perfect games last month.
And it looked like Galarraga would have no-hitter #4.
The 27th batter, Jason Donald, hit a grounder to Tiger first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera fielded the ball and flipped it to Galarraga, who beat Donald to the bag.
Perfect game.
Or not.
Umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe.
Galarraga promptly got the next out, winning the game 3-0.
But the damage was done. No perfect game. No no-hitter.
Jim Joyce will now be linked to Don Denkinger, who many feel cost the St. Louis Cardinals the '85 World Series with a similar botched call in Game 6 of that series.
Joyce has become a household name for all the wrong reasons. He will forever be linked to the call. Millions of baseball fans are upset that Joyce could ruin a piece of baseball history.
I'm not one of those fans.
Yes, Joyce screwed up. Yes, Galarraga should have had a perfect game. Yes, replay probably would have solved the problem.
But it's also true that no one's perfect. I doubt 99.99999% of fans complaining on Twitter and Facebook have ever umped a game. Umpires make hundreds of thousands of split second decisions during the course of their careers. Believe it or not, they're not going to get each call right.
Joyce has worked two All-Star Games, nine post-season series, and two World Series. A pretty nice career. But now, many think he's the worst ump ever (By the way, if you think that, you suck. Plain and simple. But you probably already knew that.)
I feel sorry both Galarraga and Joyce. Galarraga missed out on baseball immorality. Joyce will undoubtedly get his share of hate mail, boos, and harrasement during the next several days and weeks ahead.
But in this otherwise imperfect moment for both men, Galarraga and Joyce handled the media scene after the game perfectly.
Joyce didn't shy away from his mistake. In fact, he admitted his error and even went to Galarraga and Tiger manager Jim Leyland to apologize. Pure class.
Galarraga, while obviously disappointed about not getting the no-no, didn't shower Joyce with angry words or refuse to speak to the ump. In fact, he accepted the apology and appreciated Joyce's gesture. How many of us would be able to handle that situation with the same grace?
Professional media pundits and their amateur counterpoints will undoubtedly spend the next few days pontificating on the need for instant replay and attacking Joyce's decision-making. But while the "experts" spend time trying to figure out how to make the game perfect, hopefully there will be some focus on how both player and umpire handled the perfect game that wasn't.
Besides, it's just a game. Time to move on. And let Joyce go back to work in peace.
