After No Further Review
My baseball sources now confirm that despite the meandering nature of Commissioner Bud Selig’s statement today about the Armando Galarraga game, Jim Joyce, Replay, and Zen And The Art Of Mistake Repair, you can take that statement as an indication that the matter of correcting Joyce’s mistake is closed.
It is conceivable that the Commissioner might revisit intervening at some later date, but the further we march away from the hour of the blown call, the less likely any change is – and the chances right now are almost nil.
It should be noted again, of course, that from 1917 until late in the 1991, Ernie Shore and his family and friends were under the impression that he had thrown a Perfect Game – admittedly with an asterisk – until a special committee serving under the previous commissioner decided otherwise. Similarly, Harvey Haddix went from 1959 to ’91 thinking he’d thrown one, too.
The Commissioner’s lovely words about Mr. Joyce’s honesty, and Mr. Galarraga’s graciousness, sound filling and satisfying right now. I suspect history will be a lot tougher on the umpire – and the Commissioner.
Baseball Nerd 
im sorry selig blew it (again) since he cares so little for justice and fairplay why should fans bother watching baseballs showcase,the all star game. I say boycott the game until galarraga is awarded his perfect game
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=126319564057674
Unreal. I consider Selig’s decision to be worse than Joyce’s blown call. Here’s hoping he loses sleep for years over blowing this one. Somehow I don’t think the impervious commish will miss a wink.
I guess getting the call right isn’t in the best interests of the game. Oh well.
I believe the only fitting resolution for Bud Selig’s desire to get things right and then do nothing is to ensure that August 24th when his statue is unveiled in Milwaukee that it’s sporting a home Tigers jersey bearing Galarraga’s name/number.
At what point do we stop overruling bad calls retroactively once we start? The Don Denkinger call? How about those crappy calls in the playoffs last year? The Jeffrey Maier game? Do we overrule the call that Joyce missed in the previous inning when he ruled Johnny Damon safe, too, and take away those last two Detroit runs? Do we bring games to a screeching halt every time there’s a close play at any base? Do we have managers throwing red flags on the field?
Umpires mistakes are part of every game. Are we going to take away the Hand of God goal now, too? The Soviet Union’s 1972 basketball gold medal?
If anything screams out for use of the ultimate power of the commissioner to act in “the best interests of baseball”, this does. Selig is either just a useless tool or so removed from what actually goes on around him that he should just be a figure head. He has done nothing to make the game better and I would say under his watch it was actually diminished (revenues are not the only judge of success, Bud). They need to get someone in the position who actually can act in the interests of the game not just pose for pitures with Hank Aaron (another player he screwed over by not dealing with the steroid issue early and severely enough). I mean Judge Landis was pr*ck, but at least he got things done.
Commissioner should:
a) keep the call and the box score
b) direct that Gallaraga’s name be added to the record books with a perfect game anyway (asterisk if necessary).
c) consider the use of replays (only sparingly) to correct egregious errors in players’ records – but not to affect the outcomes of games
d) immediately give all umpires the same training on team communication skills that they give flight crews for airlines. If that training could help get Sully Sullenberger safely down to the Hudson, it ought to help umps avoid major league handle goofs like this.
VNo change needed. That’s baseball. And it really was the perfect ending. Better than a Hitchcock film. With two class guys.
Selig made the right decision. I’ve made my arguments and I am sticking to them. The understandable outrage is based on pure emotion which tends to cloud people’s judgment. I don’t mean to cast apsersions on anybody’s point of view (especially yours Keith). You are a smart man, smarter than I am. You believe you are right, I respect that. Where I am coming from is based on my own experience. I had a case before the Missouri Supreme Court where decades of law were cast aside because of an emotional reaction to the plight of a specific plaintiff. Since then, applying that law to other cases has been an absolutely horrific nightmare.
If I have offended anyone, I apologize. My opinions are my own and have no precedentiial value (no pun intended)
Keith, it’s a good thing for me that you cannot throw paper wads in cyberspace.:>)
This changes my view of baseball, which should have been changed long ago. I am more cynical now. Baseball isn’t about records and feelgood stories of championship teams and players doing remarkable things. Baseball is– as Bertrand Russell said of life– “nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.” A botched call cost the Twins last year, as well as the Rockies in Game 3 of their series against the Phillies. Kenny Rogers beat the Yankees with a “smudge” on his hand. World Series champions of the past 25 years are littered with steroids users. “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”– or “The Stolen Signs Seen by the Giants’ Hitters”? What we see in the record books and on TV is history as written by the victors– like Romans with their throats on the stabbed Gauls– but the real interest is the back story, how this unholy mess is made to look somewhat orderly and logical. Once in a while we see it for what it truly is. My view of baseball, which was my escape from the real world, is now like my view of the real world.
Keith may be right in what history will say about this play … and the participants involved in it. But it is still the right thing to do.
Here’s why: This is like eating potato chips. One just won’t do. Once you start down the path of changing judgment calls on the bases, you cannot stop. It’s a tough, miserable break for Galarraga.
But nobody said life was fair.
As long as imperfect people are playing in a game, imperfect people will be officiating. They will do the best they can. If they’re not good enough, they will be replaced. It is really that basic.
Very simple…the ump blew it and Selig compounded the mistake. Armando Galarraga should be given credit for what he and his teammates earned. Anyone who has ever played baseball or follows it realizes that an amazing accomplishment was denied.
Selig should be highly criticized for this when you consider they allow a review over “home runs”.
The runner was clearly out and the decision needs to be reversed.
Keith, you are wrong. In fact, I don’t think you could be more wrong.
Since you love baseball and history, and baseball history, let’s go back to 1951. Eddie Gaedel pinch-hit to start a Browns game. He was a midget. He walked. A pinch-runner replaced him. Soon, some baseball officials and “experts” demanded that Gaedel be expunged from the record books. No, said Bill Veeck, the genius who signed Gaedel, because that makes a true travesty of the game by disrupting the continuity of the game. If Gaedel never batted, Bob Cain never threw the pitches, Bob Swift never caught them, Ed Hurley never called them, no one pinch-ran, no one pinch-hit.
Removing Shore and Haddix from the list did not change what HAPPENED. That changed a statistic after the fact–no one was declared safe or out ex post facto. That is far different. It’s like arguing that since we are 99.9999999 percent sure that Barry Bonds used steroids, we expunge his records. Which ones? Include what happened before steroids? Do we take away the outs recorded, too? Is that fair to the pitcher who threw the pitch?
I also do not like your tone about Jim Joyce. He is clearly crushed by what happened. But he didn’t hide. MLB even offered him today off. He could have done that. He didn’t. We should be praising him, Galarraga, and Leyland for their behavior. Compare it with how Whitey Herzog and the Cardinals behaved after Don Denkinger’s call in Game 6, and Herzog’s and Joaquin Andujar’s ejections in Game 7 when Denkinger had the plate. Ponder the threats made on the lives of Denkinger and his family, and the St. Louis radio guys who gave out his home phone number on the air, and the comments made about Joyce on the internet. That is what you should be attacking. That you are not doing so is, frankly, shameful.
mrlyngreen@aol.com, I agree that you are entitled to your opinion. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to understand considering the facts. You say the outrage is based on emotion and there’s where we disagree. There are rules in baseball and the runner was out. Pure and simple.
MLB and Selig need no other example that this one to allow for questionable reviews.
Personally, I don’t see why MLB should even be considering reversing Jim Joyce’s safe call at first, talking about instant replay for calls on the bases, or “helping” umps with ball and strike calls with cameras. Sometimes judgment calls get blown. It’s part of the game, but by rule, those calls are final. Balls and strikes are called by umpires, plays in the field are called by umpires. They are human. They make mistakes sometimes. We may all agree they made a mistake after we see replays, and even the umpires they may (very) occasionally agree they blew a call, but once the call is made, the call is made. I say move on, thanks for a great game, Mr. Galarraga. Enjoy your new Corvette. Sorry you missed out on a perfect game because of a blown call, but we’ll certainly all remember this day, and what a great game you pitched.
All I can say is (and I am going to use Keith’s own words from his days at the Evil Mother ship), acting commissioner for life Bud Selig is lucky this wasn’t a Twins pitcher. Gardenhire would have gone postal and would probably be suspended for the next gazillion games. Keep in mind there was no communication between the rest of the crew. As a high school umpire, we are taught to communicate on the diamond. Surely, the NIMROD behing the plate could have been backing Mr. Joyce up and, if needed, come in and call the out to at least discuss it.
Compare to game 3 of the Stanley cup finals last night. Two goals for Philly were ruled “NO GOAL.” O’Halloran and McCreary got together and discussed the play (as they did on a botched icing call which was changed) and went to the replay. One call overturned, one upheld.
My point, if the technology is there to make sure the right call is made, USE IT!! And, most importantly, the ump’s need to start communicating.
dmurphy
The call was a judgment call, no baseball rule was violated. Apples and oranges. If there had been a rule violated I would be singing a different tune. That fact is the underpinning of my opinion.
As I said I do not wish to offend anyone. I don’t always choose my words carefully.
The delusion in this comment thread is that this is a “judgment call”. There’s no judgment to be made in which foot hit the bag first: It’s a verifiable fact which foot hit the bag first.
You want to keep replay out of judgment calls? Okay. Sure. (Although even then the guy making judgments will be better served by having the best possible information available to him.) But most of baseball isn’t a matter of judgments: It’s black-and-white. Did the ball land on the left side of the line or the right side? Who’s foot touched the base first?
@ron.aaron.eisenberg: The question of precedent is silly. Simply set the precedent that you’ll only correct such stats if (a) they have no impact on the outcome of the game; (b) the original umpire making the call agrees it was blown; and (c) the change happens within 72 hours of the original call.
This isn’t a case of an emotional response trumping good law. This is the case of a verifiably bad law creating a verifiably bad result. And MLB’s unwillingness to correct either this specific situation or the bad rules which resulted in this situation occurring is truly problematic.
That’s the real precedent that’s being set here. And it’s a horrible precedent. It’s a precedent which will continue to injure the already tarnished reputation of MLB.
At least I didn’t use the word “delusion”.
I said in a comment to the previous post that I could argue this until the earth stopped spinning on its axis. You know what? I lied. I’m done.
If they had reversed the call, it would have set an ALARMING precedent. Namely, that in the event of a clearly blown call, which nobody disputes actually was a clearly blown call, and which, if corrected, would result in the final out in a perfect game, the commissioner may exercise the power to step in and make things right. Clearly that’s something that would come up ALL THE TIME, so we’d better not get ourselves on that slippery slope.
Listen, the responses that “that’s baseball,” “slippery slope,” or “the human element is part of the game” are just empty crutch words. I.e., it’s jargon used to cover up an apparent preference to acquiesce to the formalism of the rules (even in the face of error and unfairness) and to defer to tradition simply for the fact that it’s old. Instead, why not think seriously about the issue to try to come up with the best, most equitable solution?
I agree with historymike’s post. The extension of overturning that call would require nullifying what little happened from that point.
Jim Joyce has also handled this situation with actual professionalism, a far cry from the petulance that seems to common among Major League umps. It is the unprofessional umps who act like cliche rogue cops from some bad movie that deserve our collective baseball outrage, not Joyce.
Bad calls happen in any sport- what seems unique to baseball is a portion of the umpire population incapable of professionalism. That group doesn’t appear to include Joyce the misplaced target of anti-ump rage.
The right outcome would be to use this as the jump-off point for the real use of replay for fact-based calls like this one. Home Runs, fair/foul, close plays like this at bases. Hockey does replay well- it’s quick, no challenges involved.
Keith,
Galarraga bobbled the ball. Look at the centerfield replay. The ball looks like a snowcone in his glove as he looks down at the base. He then re-grabs the ball to seat it securely in the pocket of his glove. But the runner is already passed.
Don’t let the hysteria sweep you away. Resist the rush to judgment. Decide for yourself at what point Galarraga demonstrated control of that ball. And maybe you’ll find that the runner was safe. That Joyce made the right call after all.
Some people have touched on the real answer, and everyone else is ignoring it.
You can’t only review this one call and then call it a perfect game. EVERY call would have to be reviewed in order to be accurate. It’s either not a perfect game because humans make the judgments, or it is one (maybe) after using replay to make all the judgments. It makes no logical sense to pick and choose.
Bud Selig has no feel for the game or the moment. His lack of leadership and vision has seriously hindered the growth of baseball. Since he can’t do his job, let Congress remove the status that baseball has and then the Teams should vote on someone who CAN lead.
For those who are concerned on the creep of innovation and technology, get over it! This is not 1890 baseball. There are tools out there to easily allow umpires to review calls when necessary. In fact, why do we even need umpires? With the current technology, we can detect balls and strikes, and what is a fair ball, and who is safe or out. Have an ump in the control room and there will be a lot fewer bad calls!
Olbermann do you have a clue? In no way is the Brett Pine Tar incident the same.It was overturned because the umpire misinterpreted a rule and made his call based on that misinterpretation. That’s why it was reversed. Judgement calls (balls & strikes , fair or foul, out or safe) cannot be challenged or protested .
Imagine the Pandora’s Box that Selig would open if he allowed the call to be overturned. Hey let’s go back and retroactively overturn Denkinger’s call in ’85 so the Cards can be crowned the 1985 World Champs.
Everybody needs to get over it. Apparently everybody else is more upset about this than Galaraga is.
We’re not talking about the result of the game here. The Tigers still won the game . We’re talking about a personal accomplishment for the pitcher , not the result of the game. So they’re going to make an exception for an individual’s achievement ?
Let’s say on that play the runner was safe by that same significant margin , yet Joyce calls him out and Gallaraga gets his perfect game. Do the Indians protest the call because had he been safe the inning would’ve been prolonged and perhaps the Indians rally and win the game? Oh and if this had indeed occured would everybody then be in an uproar about how Gallaraga had unfairly pitched and been awarded a perfect game when he didn’t deserve one? YEAH THAT WOULD HAPPEN! Everybody be bending over backwards to excuse the bad call because , HEY! what the hell, IT’S A PERFECT GAME! No individual accomplishment should supercede the game. If events had transpired in this way , NONE of you would be on here bitching about how the ump gave Gallaraga a perfect game he didn’t deserve. You can’t have it both ways .
To get back to the proverbial “Pandora’s Box” they’d be setting a precedent for any future similar event ,for example: Scenario: 9th inning ,game 7 , 2 outs no one on base. Yankees lead by a run .Same exact type of play occurs and runner is actually out by a step and a half ,yet is called safe. Next batter comes up and hits a 2 run GW HR . So now the Yankees get to protest the game based on the precedent set and the next day the commissioner has to overrule the ump and Yankees win . It would never end until replay was instituted.
Ump made a mistake .Move on!
paul
I don’t think overturning the call would necessarily create a bad precedent. This is a unique situation where everyone, everyone, knows it was a bad call and everyone knows what would have happened had it gone the right way. Of all the bad calls I’ve seen in my life, I don’t recall a single one where that was the case. Even if the infamous Denkinger call in 1985 had gone the right way, who’s to say the Royals wouldn’t have put up a couple of runs anyway?
But more than that, changing it is good PR all around. Everyone knows it’s the wrong call, and no one would be hurt by overturning it (except maybe Jason Donald’s average, but I think that’s a hit he’s willing to take), but by sitting on his thumbs, Selig validates all of baseball’s detractors who point out the purely human officiating when everyone else gets the benefit of seeing it again. Even the new home run call reviews are subject to human judgment; if the umps don’t want to, they don’t have to look at it.
It’s a big failure on the part of Bud Selig, and if he won’t change it, then I await the day that a future commissioner will.
With regards to Bud Selig overturning the call – absolutely not!!
My question is this: Had the blown call happened to the 1st batter of the game and not the 27th, (if Galarraga had retired the ensuing 27 batters) would the clamor for instant replay, for Bud Selig to overturn the call and, most importantly, for Jim Joyce to wear this like an albatross for the rest of his life have occurred? I really don’t think so.
The bottom line is that this will, as Mr. Burns put it, force baseball to pay more than lip service to instant replay. I favor the challenge rule such as in football and tennis. But don’t overturn the call or the outcome. Otherwise, they might as well review every play from every game and correct all of the ramifications of those errors as well.
I would normally agree, but you cannot change something that has no effect on the W-L column.
Do they go back to Don Larson’s “perfect game” and change it, because the last strike was obviously high? Do they make all those old guys get back on the field, and replay the last out?
I feel so bad for Galarraga, but the call was made, right or wrong.
Just add this to the long, long list of crimes and misdemeanors Bud has committed on the game.
The Commissioner’s office is an archaic relic in any case. It only worked in the days when people took everything handed to them by someone they perceived as an authority figure at face value without question. Over time, partially because of the men who occupied the office, and (to a larger degree) due to the fact that became better understood when Vincent was dismissed, (that the occupant was chosen by, and answerable to, only one side of the labor divide), more people have realized that the office is essentially useless.
Still, it has that inherent little bauble, the Best Interests of the Game power. It’s been used for such lame and petty things in the past. This would have been a great time to use the archaic and foolish toy for a good end and establishing, in this one and only case, something about the spirit of the game. Instead, Selig acted in the finest traditions of Barney Fife and got it wrong.
Again.
This is not a crime. Not even close. It was not a perfect game. In order to be a perfect game not only the pitching and fielding must be perfect, but the officiating needs to be perfect as well. It wasn’t. A perfect game is not just a triumph for the pitcher. He is not in it alone. If a game can be rendered imperfect because of a single fielding error, such as Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter on July 10, 2009, why shouldn’t an officiating error have the same effect? After all it is childs game, played and umpired by imperfect adults.
there may be a way to structure a reply regime that allows for a reasonable opportunity to review, and creates disincentives for abuse.
how about this: allow umpires, on their own initiative, to review calls any time they feel the need.
in addition, you could provide each manager with a limited number of challenges per game…and for this example, let’s choose two.
while the challenges could be used at any time, a failed challenge would result in a sanction of some sort–perhaps a balk or an awarded out.
if the challenging team is playing defense at the time and a challenge is rejected, the penalty would be assessed during the next half inning, when they’re at bat.
thoughts?
Every child who plays any sport from little league on up, every coach, teacher and parent, should be required to learn about Detroit Pitcher Armando Gallarraga and Umpire Jim Joyce in order to truly understand the humility, honesty, dignity, integrity and respect REAL sportsmanship requires. I stand in awe of these two men!
Keith,
I wanted to comment because I would have agreed with most everything you said. That is, until I saw a closeup view of the ball hitting the palm of Galarraga’s mitt, then creeping down its length until it appeared to be the proverbial snow cone. Few who stridently want the call to be changed to an “out” seem to have seen that particular replay, or they did see it, didn’t appreciate the import of what they saw. I agree with rposborne, that the correct call was most probably made, even though Joyce believes he blew it. Apparently, he was only shown the wide-angle shot (shown repeatedly on ESPN and everywhere else in the known universe) and not the view that would either completely, or at least partially, have exonerated his call.
So, I am calling upon you, sir, (you must still have some pull at ESPN) to have that closeup replay shown again on SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight. Friday night would be great. Both in slow-motion, which was how I saw it, (the one time they played it, to my knowledge) and at full speed. Perhaps the hosts could reiterate the rule that defines an “out” recorded at any force-out base : that all three of these components must be true: the ball must beat the baserunner to the bag, fielder must touch the bag and the ball must be SECURELY in the glove or hand. Sorry, just two won’t do.
I’m confident that those who say that the call was egregiously wrong would concede, at a minimum, that the call was far closer than thought without benefit of the “bobble cam” view. After fifty years of watching baseball, I’ve seen at least a dozen cases where the umpires makes the safe call and then mimes juggling, indicating “no catch”. I’m not averring that the baserunner was definitely safe or out, just that there is a good case to be made that the umpire may have made the right call. He, and apparently many others, just haven’t seen the evidence. The only other clue, albeit much weaker, was what I now believe may have been the sly, I-almost-got-away-with-bobbling-the-ball grin on the pitcher’s face after the umpire made the call.
It is so painfull to see Bud selig’s contempt for the integrity of the game. In these tough times, baseball is a great diversion and I have always loved it so deliberately not correcting a mistake that all agree occurred and which does not change the outcome of the game, the score, or the ERA of the batter cannot be defended. It’s just one more example of the vanishing integrity of baseball. I will boycott the allstar game. I know that’s lame but Selig has to understand that this has hit a nerve with the american public. It’s a start.
Sorry, I was agreeing with plegge that perhaps Joyce didn’t blow the call. Roll the clip!
Whether the call was correct or not is beyond the point. It is a travesty that instead of praising both of the gentlemen involved for their brilliant display of sportsmanship (which should stand as a lesson to us all) attention is focused on disregarding baseball rules and tradition just to please some individuals who didn’t get the result they wanted.
The concept of a “perfect game” was revised in 1991 and ended up excluding even more brilliant performances like Harvey Haddox 12 “perfect” innings because he allowed a runner in the 13th inning.
Selig is far from my idea of a commissioner, but he did the right thing in this instance. Umpires make mistakes, always have, always will. Its part of baseball. Always has been. Its time to put this childishness behind us, grow up, and move on. Mr. Joyce (who has received death threats from those egged on by this “overturn” nonsense) and Mr. Galarraga have, so should the rest of us.
I’d hate to think that Bud Seligs decision could be driven by money. Perhaps bets or sponsorship to ensure that there is no perfect game. Shame on you Selig if you can be bought! Otherwise, I can’t see how he can not overturn a blatant and obvious bad call.
Like you, Keith, I’ve been mentally thumbing through potentially analogous episodes in sports to compose a persuasive rationale for Bud Selig overturning Umpire Joyce’s call on Wednesday evening. By now, you’ve heard or thought of them all: Cornell-Dartmouth, the “Pine Tar” game, Missouri-Colorado, etc.
A little while ago, however, I thought of a concept that might be even more suitable in this situation. Perhaps you’ve heard of it: “Moral Force.” The speaker from whom I learned the concept described “Moral Force” this way:
“Factoring in the Human Equation?some sense of proportion into the rigid formulas of the lives we lead…. Saying, ?Most of the time I?m going to do what other people tell me I have to do. Most of the time, I?m going to follow the book. I?m never going to cut corners for personal gain. But whenever and wherever I can have a positive effect on somebody else?s life?I?m going to do it.'”
That same speaker also told his audience that they will improve the world if, once or twice in their lives, they will stand up and say, ?You know what? This is wrong for me and for people I know and people I don?t know, and I?m not going to do it.?
Commissioner Selig needs to draw upon his Moral Force and do the right thing.
Oh, and that speaker I quoted? Keith Olbermann, Class of 1979, speaking at the 1998 Cornell University Senior Convocation.
scottrontech, a ‘snow-cone’ catch is still a catch–this isn’t football where the receiver must be in complete control of the ball before his knee touches the ground. If the ball had rolled in his glove to the point where he had to make a second grab at it, and in that small interval the batter’s foot hit the bag, yes, the call would have been correct. But that’s not what happened.
I agree with Keith’s point that, if this call is not overturned, Mr. Joyce will end up being known as The Ump who Blew the Perfect Game. That would be nearly as pathetic as poor Ralph Branca being mainly known for The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. As someone who has had the honor of meeting the warm, always soft-spoken Mr. Branca (and his lovely wife Ann) and talking to him many times in the past, I feel terribly sorry for anyone who has to live the rest of their life with a such a negative label hanging over them. Mr. Joyce does not deserve this.
I was a huge baseball fan when I was a kid. Spent every dollar of the money I earned mowing yards on baseball cards between the ages of 11 to 16, when I moved naturally onto spending money on my car.
I have such amazing memories of attending Nashville Sounds minor league games. Watching players like Willie McGee, Don Mattingly, and Steve Balboni move from playing minor league ball in my hometown to playing in the majors was such an awesome experience.
But I drifted away from baseball over the years. Seeing you discuss it on Countdown from time to time and reading your tweets about it makes me think I could rekindle that interest again.
But Bud Selig seems to be so tone deaf, so completely out of touch with the simple justice and amazing sportsmanship that both the ump and the pitcher have displayed here, and it is so discouraging, I just don’t know what to think.
This is so obviously an opportunity to celebrate not only the skill of this pitcher, but the sportsmanship he and the umpire are demonstrating. Do the right thing, Bud.
For crying out loud, people, foot on the bag and ball in the glove is an out. Doesn’t matter if it’s a ‘snow cone’ or not.
Keith has it right.
The fact that the call was made to end the game (read: you can’t use the “but even if he made the right call other things could have happened AFTER the call to change things” argument is reason enough to have this overturned.
Today’s technology is different from what it used to be. There is no affect on the past if the league decides to use that technology (or, really, use the idea that we have the technology but MLB is too stupid to use it) to change a call. Selig needed to sack up and didn’t…as per his usual way.
Please sign the petition!
If SNL can be persuaded, maybe Mr. Selig can be moved.
SIGN TODAY!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bud_change_the_call/
Thanks!
Many perfect games have been spoiled by a single error. The official scorer should change the hit to an error. Then the umpire should be charged with the error. Galarraga gets a no-hitter. Not perfect, but maybe it’s a solution everyone can live with.
I have been a baseball fan since my father took me to Dodger stadium since i was a young boy. Baseball then was pure and exciting. Kofax, Drysdale, Mr. Clean Steve Garvey, and many more. I played little league baseball. No so good at it, but i loved it. Lessons of good sportsmanship, was always at the top. And with every game there are rules. And those rules of the game were enforced by the “umpire”.
His judgement right or wrong is all part of the game. The recent game judged by the first base umpire changed game history. It was his honest call of “SAFE” was heard around the world. And we judged harshley. In the end it was still called as the ump saw it. And that is the way it should stay. Right or Wrong. An umpires judgement must stand. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ROOM FOR INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL!!! PERIOD.
The camera does not lie. It’s a machine, a thing. The game of baseball is life. And in life errors occur. So if we go to the way of instant replays, are we gonna have every ball and strike replayed ? Every foul tip replayed? The commisioner is right not to change the umpire ruling. It’s recorded and let it stand. Keith Olberman. Check your back side. Hindsight is well what it is. Now lets see if you end up on SNL” again for your lambasting comments on the umpire call.
In other instances where a call would be a reversed one team and its fans would be outraged if a change were made. Royals-Cardinals. Angels-White Sox. In this instance, changing the hit to an out (which is what it was, an out) doesn’t affect the outcome of the game or anger the other team. It gets the umpire off the hook and makes Bud Selig look good for a change. Worst Person in the World indeed.
Suppose that the runner was called out, but the replay showed that he was safe. Should the Commissioner take away the no-hitter and send back the game to be finished?
“We wuz robbed” is part of baseball.
To say replay has no place in baseball makes no sense. Officiating in all sports has a human element- but in other sports we seem willing to recognize that the objective officiating is to get as many calls right as possible. The circumstances for using replay can be easily defined. You confine it to calls that are fact based (catch/trap, fair/foul, etc) that don’t involve judgments about how a rule is applied- like a balk call.
You don’t have to have a stupid NFL-type challenge system. You can have a system more like hockey. Have it so a replay ump can alert the field umps of a review or the ump on the field on a close call will call the play dead (the players one the field 99% of the time ask for time anyway) and ask for a review. The review is done with in a minute or two and the actual correct outcome is determined. Now that’s a pure result.
“We wuz robbed” is just a variation on Alexander Pope’s spooky line: “Whatever is, is right.” I don’t know if “fatalism” is the word for it, but what I don’t like about the people arguing against Selig overturning Joyce’s call is the idea that it’s over and done with. Selig has the power to do it, he has the fan support, and he has the moral rationale (if you argue that the mob can be wrong and sometimes you have to go against them). So use that power. And give the people what they want. This is like the argument that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry because then we’d start letting people marry animals (as John Smoltz– great pitcher– once un-memorably said). Well, there isn’t a clamor by society to marry animals. Such a demand doesn’t even come in to the minds of most Americans, straight or gay. But there is a demand for marriage equality. The conditions should create the rules, not the other way around. That’s how society was built in the first place. Yes I am getting too “deep” about this. But I guess that’s why I’m so angry– moral relativism is always bashed until it happens to you; then, in your special case, well, maybe if your professor accidentally gave you an “F” in a class where you earned an “A” it should be changed so you can graduate. Things that can be changed should be changed. In a game where one city’s fans would be outraged if the call were overturned, you can’t change it. But in a game where nobody would be adversely affected (I doubt the Cleveland hitter really wants that hit) and a lot of people would benefit, use the power you have been given, as well as the support, to make a positive difference. This is one of the rare instances where my political views overlap with my views on sports. Rules exist because people make them, and we shouldn’t allow the dead word and some reactionary sense of originalist intent of The Baseball Gods prevent us from using our own common sense and common decency to do what is right for Galarraga, the Detroit fans, baseball history and Jim Joyce’s place in it.
I’ve been a Tigers fan since 1967 when they lost the pennant on the last day of the season. I had tickets to the game Wednesday, but had given them to someone else. I watched every pitch, and knew after about 4 innings it was going to be a special game (the same feeling I had watching Verlander’s no hitter a few years back). I was furious with the call, and agree with everyone else that Mr Selig had a chance to shine, and chose not to.
However, in our own “Detroit way”, I feel better now than I have since the game ended. I heard a caller on a local sports radio program state the following (I’m paraphrasing) The outcome of this affected really only 2 people: Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga. There have been more internet stories, columns, blogs and googles about this event that affects these 2 men than there are about an ecological tragedy that is affecting millions, several states, and our country as a whole. THAT sort of put it in perspective.
Just my opinion, years from now no one (except real baseball nerds) will be able to link together the names of the pitchers who threw perfect games in 2010. But EVERYONE will remember this “perfect game” that was over ruled by an umpire’s blow call.
I’m proud of all the people, including the fans, in my home town. In many ways the city is downtrodden, but this event, and local and national articles about it, show that while the city is sinking, the people continue to rise to the occasion.
For an example, please read these articles, which I choose simply for their take on how we, very close to the situation, are handling it. I’ve never been prouder of the team I’ve followed forever, our manager, or the fans:
http://detnews.com/article/20100604/SPORTS0104/6040368/1129/sports/Tigers–fans-treat-down-in-the-dumps-ump-with-dignity
http://detnews.com/article/20100604/OPINION03/6040356/1004/SPORTS/Galarraga–Leyland–Joyce-display-grace–sportsmanship-in-dealing-with-gaffe
Thanks for letting me have my say.
It isn’t the 19teens any more. We have living, permanent proof in high definition when a call is horribly blown. And this one ruined a perfect game and an amazing moment in MBL history (3rd perfect game in such a short time span). All this “umpire error is part of the game” talk is rooted in an outmoded premise – that we have to accept even the most egregious of umpire errors, because we can’t ever be totally sure we get every call right. Except now we can. The oft-repeated yarn of supposed old school sports wisdom needs to be relegated to the dustbin. Sportsmanship, honesty, and fan satisfaction all hinge on getting it right. A game decided unfairly is much less fun to watch.
The commish has already decided that replay can be used for even the most inconsequential of home runs – exhibiting his bias toward the money making long ball. But to use it to overturn a horribly bad call, one that wouldn’t change the result of the game if overturned? Nah, he’ll just sit on his hands. Just like he did with steroids. Just like he does with anything that doesn’t fit a very narrow agenda that hasn’t a thing to do with the integrity of the game.
Once again, Bud Selig proved that he is only good at two things: the aforementioned weak-willed laziness, and trying to wring every last ounce of joy out of baseball. In my case, it’s working.
Agreed, let’s boycott the All Star game. This might be a nice test case to see if the people in this country can get concerned enough about *anything* to so much as flip a channel in anger. My suspicion is they can’t, and Bud knows it. One born every minute.
I have nothing to add to what triad3204 and others have stated here in defense of changing the call, except I doubt that those who exhort the rest of us to ‘let it go’ have not been the victims of a grave injustice that CAN BE corrected. Who benefits from letting this blown call stand? NO ONE.
Like Ken Burns, I hope this call will be overturned one day. If so, it is my fervent desire that both Galarraga and Joyce are alive to see it.
I doubt that those who exhort the rest of us to ‘let it go’ have not been the victims of a grave injustice that CAN BE corrected.
You would be wrong.
the proper scoring of the last non-out in the latest non-perfect game should have been E 11. (plate ump being 10) this preserves the call, the outcome, the precious sanctity so closely guarded by the ossified keepers of the flame, and allows the record books to fairly reflect the reality of the actual game. no violence is done to anyone or any institution. and everybody, save maybe the batter (although he’s not talking much, as if anyone would listen), is happy. even the ump would approve, i’m sure.
the proper scoring of the last non-out in the latest non-perfect game should have been E 11. (plate ump being 10) this preserves the call, the outcome, the precious sanctity so closely guarded by the ossified keepers of the flame, and allows the record books to fairly reflect the reality of the actual game. no violence is done to anyone or any institution. and everybody, save maybe the batter (although he’s not talking much, as if anyone would listen), is happy. even the ump would approve, i’m sure.
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