Baseball not a perfect game

This blog has nothing to do with BYU athletics. But, as a sports aficionado, I feel an urge to use my blog space to express my thoughts on umpire Jim Joyce’s blown call on Wednesday night that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts. It’s definitely a hot topic in the sports world today and worthy of discussion.
1. First, let’s heed the words of Tigers coach Jim Leyland and remember Joyce wanted to get the call correct. He’s just human, and blew it, he admits it, and hopefully fans will not be too harsh on him. We have blown calls in sports every day. It’s part of the games and has been throughout history. Some blown calls are just more impacting than others – like this one.
2. It was not the biggest blown call in baseball history. I think that honor still goes to Don Denkinger who blew a call on a similar play at first base that arguably cost the St. Louis Cardinals the 1985 World Series. Costing a team a World Series title is more crucial than costing a player a perfect game. Teams begin each year with the main goal of winning the World Series, not of having a pitcher throw a perfect game.
3. Galarraga might not go down in history with a perfect game, but his close call will be talked about for decades. Most likely, what happened to him will probably make his game Wednesday more historic. Everyone knows that officially, he did not throw a perfect game. Unofficially, he did. I, for one, will never think any less of his performance on Wednesday because of Joyce’s call. But I will remember it now, whereas had Joyce made the correct call, it probably wouldn’t have left as big of impression on me.
4. MLB would be making a huge mistake and setting a horrible precedence if it reverses Joyce’s call and makes Galarraga’s game officially perfect. If it does, then it has to go back and review Milt Pappas’ near perfect game in 1972 when umpire Bruce Froemming ruled two straight borderline pitches on the 27th batter balls that cost Pappas a perfect game to see if those pitches should have been called strikes. Personally, I think if MLB reviewed umpire Mike DiMuro’s strike zone in Roy Halladay’s recent perfect game, to make sure he got all those ball and strike calls correct, Halladay would have walked at least two hitters, maybe more.
If Joyce’s call was the final straw in MLB deciding to use instant replay, then so be it. But it wasn’t part of the game on Wednesday and hasn’t been part of the game to date. The umpires can giveth and the umpires can taketh, that’s how it’s always been. So I say let Joyce’s call stand, and let Galarraga’s pitching performance remain what it is – perfect in the minds of those who watched it, near perfect in the record books, and historic because of what it should have been and why it isn’t.