Bad call, good reaction
Big deal.
I know it is really a big deal, and it might force baseball to accept what century this is and utilize the technology that the rest of society uses. And if they could get their beer colder, that would help, too.
But it was just a bad call. Mistakes happen and every game could be a perfect game, until pitchers start walking batters, giving up hits or watching their teammates commit errors. That's what makes the perfect game so mythical. Yeah, Galarraga got screwed, but he showed true class to step up and accept the umpire's apology.
And Joyce showed real class by immediately recognizing the error in his call. Too bad he didn't bring the group of umpires together and say, hey, did I blow that? And perhaps one would have said, yeah, it's on the replay and he's safe. (The baserunner, Jason Donald, knew what happened before anyone else, putting his hands onto his head when he realized he was safe). They could have overturned it in the huddle.
But they didn't. I don't think baseball should go back and change the result. They had the chance then.
Everyone makes mistakes, and the mistakes are typically made worse when someone tries to hide or justify their slip up. When I covered courts, I saw many people who were caught doing something wrong and only made it worse by lying (fraud, lying to police), running (fleeing cops), or even assaulting or killing someone as they struggled to get away.
Standing up right away and saying, hey, I blew it, comes from someone well grounded. And I was happy to see Joyce had done that, admitting he missed it later in the night on a radio interview.
Practically speaking, he got in front of the story. But he had to. He couldn't wait until he left town and sometime this weekend quietly admit it.
Instead of changing the results of this game, MLB should just add instant replay. Right now. It's easy. Everyone can do it, why not baseball's billionaires? But now that the politicians are getting involved, I'm very tired of this story.
Labels: galarraga, joyce, MLB, perfect game
2 Comments:
Mr. Frye,
I agree with almost everything you said. I want to commend you on having what I consider to be a well reasoned opinion on the job that Galarraga got. There's no doubt that Armando was robbed, but it's done and over with. Human error is a part of the game, not just for players, but also for the umps.
Screwing up a perfect game for a pitcher calls attention to bad calls, but if we go to replay, what else will be challenged? For example, the NFL has replay, and their version of replay is total horsecrap because it assumes that only two mistakes per half will be made. Let's not go down this road because it will lead to picayune arguments about minor issues. Umps are human too, they are part of the game, and we need to deal with it.
Yes William, I agree with the problems with replay. The one proposal I read about said that managers would get one request per game. I don't know why they can't figure out a system that corrects mistakes immediately after they occurred. It seems the announcers tend to figure these things out before the next batter is finished.
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