2010 MLB Season

[Patrick]

Definitely an idiotic call.

...and a nice pitching performance by Fausto Carmona...

[ghost of miles]

Great comment from a poster at Pinstripe Alley:

congratz to Galarraga on the first 28 up 28 down perfect game

[Quincy]

Pretty amazing series between the D-backs & Dodgers. Dodgers sweep all 3 by 1 run and the past 2 were 1-0 extra inning games.

A few of the favorable lifetime counting stats for Ken Griffey Jr.:

HR - 5th

RBI - 14th (between Ted Williams & Rafael Palmeiro)

Extra base hits - 6th (tied w/ Rafael, Mays in 5th, Gehrig in 8th)

Despite the long (though injury-plagued) career he didn't crack the top 10 in strikeouts as he finished 12th. Mike Cameron is ahead of him!, Alex & Manny right behind and should easily pass him this year.

And who is behind Ruth for most home runs lifetime in the AL? Not Jr. His former teammate Alex is.

[Quincy]

J.H., I agree re: overturning. Incredibly exceptional circumstances and yes, they sure need to expand the situations in which teams can appeal via instant replay.

I could not disagree more. Bad calls are a part of the game.

No doubt the bad call is a pisser, but hell, if you're going to audit the bad calls then do you turn around and audit the questionable ball/strike calls in the pitcher's favor? Perfect games have become downright commonplace so the pitcher may be better off folk-hero-wise getting screwed than having it counted in the books. Sort of a Harvey Haddix, without the extra innings. Baseball games are long enough as it is, throw in replays and we're talking 5 1/2 hour Yankee-Red Sox games.

[Chalupa]

J.H., I agree re: overturning. Incredibly exceptional circumstances and yes, they sure need to expand the situations in which teams can appeal via instant replay.

I could not disagree more. Bad calls are a part of the game. It happens in games that should be "Perfect" and it happens in a game that should have ended a World Series and it happens in games that are instantly forgotten. The human aspect of umpiring is a part of the game and that cannot change. Not to mention the fact that the league is trying to keep games from going so long, and you want to expand the video review to bang-bang plays at a base?

I think that when a manager comes out of the dugout to argue a call and goes on a rampage that wastes more time then having a instant replay rule ever would. Having an expanded instant replay rule would cut down on a lot outbursts. I think you can have instant replay w/ out adding significant time to the game. Look at the NFL. 2 challenges a game and the officials have a short time frame(I think 2 minutes??)to take a look at the call. Those challenges don't add any significant time to the game. I'd rather they get the call right and have the game end 10 minutes later than for them to blow the call and have it end 10 minutes earlier. And yes bad calls are part of the game but if the technology exists that would enable those bad calls to be reduced, why not use it?

J.H., I agree re: overturning. Incredibly exceptional circumstances and yes, they sure need to expand the situations in which teams can appeal via instant replay.

I could not disagree more. Bad calls are a part of the game.

No doubt the bad call is a pisser, but hell, if you're going to audit the bad calls then do you turn around and audit the questionable ball/strike calls in the pitcher's favor? Perfect games have become downright commonplace so the pitcher may be better off folk-hero-wise getting screwed than having it counted in the books. Sort of a Harvey Haddix, without the extra innings. Baseball games are long enough as it is, throw in replays and we're talking 5 1/2 hour Yankee-Red Sox games.

I would draw the line at balls/strikes.

[papsrus]

I'd shy away from expanding instant replay for the appeal of obviously blown calls, but this seems like not just a routine blown call, but one with historic implications.

One could argue that these extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. The commissioner's office should reverse the call. If not that, then the Supreme Court.

Or maybe not. It'll go down in history either way.

Just a shame, though.

[Dave James]

I know the blown call is the hot topic tonight, but I can't believe no one has mentioned that The Kid hung up the spikes today for good. I'm not sure he's getting out for the right reasons, i.e. he still thinks he can play and contribute, but you have to give him credit for realizing that he'd become a distraction more than a ballplayer. I'm no fan of the M's, but in his best years, Griffey made that team worth watching. He was as naturally gifted a player as I've ever seen. At his best, he made the most difficult of games look easy. Without him, Seattle might no longer have a baseball team and even it they did, they would not be playing their games at Safeco Field. It's impossible to overestimate the effect Griffey has had on that city.

[Quincy]

I'd shy away from expanding instant replay for the appeal of obviously blown calls, but this seems like not just a routine blown call, but one with historic implications.

One could argue that these extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. The commissioner's office should reverse the call. If not that, then the Supreme Court.

Or maybe not. It'll go down in history either way.

Just a shame, though.

Yes to all of the above. Well maybe not the SC. Or...bring back the *. It once belonged to Roger Maris and he did alright with it. Let's bring it back for questionable ump called games and stuff.

Pedro's perfect game that he "lost" in extra innings. Harvey Haddix too. Shore's relief perfect game after Ruth's ejection. Stuff like that sticks around even if it doesn't make the official lists. (Not sure if Shore's still is official or not, as I don't trust Wiki with our baseball heritage. )

Let me add the obvious - if I was a Tiger fan I'd be fuming. But right now I'm burned out on perfect games. Don't need another until 2017 or so. I'd rather see a horse win the Triple Crown (which was so commonplace 30 years ago.) Also when I read it was Galarraga I realized somewhere along the line I've combined or confused his career with that of Tony Armas Jr.

[Jazzmoose]

I would draw the line at balls/strikes.

I agree; the players can learn each umpires' strike zones, as long as they're consistent.

[Dan Gould]

The only way video review would possibly work is to have someone in the booth with the specific job of watching safe/out calls for over-turning. He sees something questionable, he hits the microphone and tells the home plate umpire to call time. He gets two or three looks at the play and makes his judgment.

If one bad call at a big moment creates such a momentous change it will be a travesty of a mockery of a sham.

[ghost of miles]

Joe Girardi seems to think Selig/MLB should consider overturning Joyce's call:

“I think it’s something that baseball should look at possibly because if they do change it, it doesn’t affect the game. It doesn’t affect the outcome.” he said after a 9-1 win over Baltimore. “I know it will be the first time that it’s ever happened but you’re talking about a very unusual circumstance.”

Post at Bless You Boys:

Dear Mr. Selig: Make This Game Perfect

I'd be astonished if it happened, but I think in this case it should.

Others have made a good argument that you don't have to worry about "setting a precedent" either, if you also institute some version of instant replay--this kind of situation won't even arise again.

Edited June 3, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Dan Gould]

Girardi is out of his freaking mind.

And it could still very well happen with some sort of review regime if there is a limit on "challenges". What happens if there are two bang-bang plays earlier in the game that are challenged by the "perfect" pitcher's manager? Now he's got no more challenges left for the biggest call of the game. Should there be an automatic review by the umpires, like the ridiculous two-minutes-left-in-the-half rule in football? Or maybe the losing team should challenge a call that went in their favor?

BAD CALLS ARE PART OF THE GAME. DEAL WITH IT AND DON'T FUCK UP THE BEST GAME IN THE WORLD.

[ghost of miles]

I have no love whatsoever for the "tradition" of blown calls, especially ones so significant as to change the fate of a World Series or a perfect game. To me, officially pretending that Galarraga didn't throw a perfect game makes a sham of the integrity of baseball. Limited use of instant replay would do much more to protect said integrity. The NFL sure hasn't collapsed from using it! Plus the sacrosanct "immutability" of the game is way overblown... MLB has done all kinds of things in the past few decades that have altered the nature of the game, from lowering the pitching mound to the AL's instituting the DH. If we're going to stay in 1920, let's do away with batting helmets and bring back the color line! How on earth is instituting limited instant replay going to destroy baseball?

Instead we'll take away Galarraga's perfect game and leave Jim Joyce--an umpire who, by nearly all accounts, is an excellent and widely-respected longtime vet--with a permanent cloud of infamy around his name, all because MLB refuses to embrace the technology that would do wonders to ensure the statistical integrity of the game. I deeply respect your love and knowledge of the game, Dan, but I feel strongly that what happened last night was a needless crime against the game's history. Not only for Galarraga, who will not likely ever come close to such an achievement again, but for the fact that it would have been the third perfect game thrown in less than a month...astonishing. The only good that can come of this is if it does in fact lead MLB to finally accept some expanded form of instant replay.

[ghost of miles]

Jayson Stark: Can we please have more replay?

Replay works. It may not work 100 percent of the time. But I've got news for all the people who are moaning and groaning right now: It has a lot better accuracy rate on calls like this than Jim Joyce achieved with his very own naked eye Wednesday night.

And here's another bulletin for you: The umpires are fine with more replay.

Not all kinds of replay. Not unlimited replay. But more replay is OK with them. I know because I've asked them.

You think Jim Joyce wants to spend the next 24, or 48, or 4 billion, hours of his life as the latest international symbol for umpiring incompetence?

You think he wants to have the replay of that screwed-up call surgically attached to his reputation for the rest of his umpiring career?

You don't think he'd have preferred to look at a replay, get this right and re-establish law, order, truth, justice and, above all, perfection? Of course he would.

If those were his options -- his real options -- I can't believe he, or any sane human, would choose to keep making these calls the same way they were made in Detroit on Wednesday.

It can all be addressed -- easily. And here's my proposal to address it:

We'd keep the home run replay system exactly the way it is now. We'd then expand it to include fair-or-foul plays all over the field -- not just for home runs. But now here comes the big change -- the change that would have fixed this mess, in all probability:

We would give each manager one challenge a night to use however he wants to use it -- except for ball/strike calls.

Plays on the bases. Traps and catches. Fan interference or not. Placing runners. I'd use replay for any of them, but only once. And that part would be the manager's call.

To this I'd add only that I think managers should be given two challenges per game.

Jeff Passan: It's the perfect time to expand replay

Institute widespread instant replay.

Now.

It should’ve been in place the moment Major League Baseball agreed that technology was sufficient to double-check home run calls. That came in August 2008. In the middle of the season. Selig is not against changing rules on the fly. The slope is already greased.

And this is how he should do it: announce on Thursday morning that he’s putting together a committee of executives, players, MLB officials and union officials to discuss the proper parameters of replay. Weigh, over the next five weeks, the benefits and detriments of different options, like the NFL’s red-flag system that limits teams to two replays per game or a broader option that allows operators in MLB’s central replay office to stop the game to review a call.

Then, at the All-Star Game, announce the new rules and implement them starting in the second half.

It is long overdue. The blown calls in the 2009 playoffs were bad enough. From Phil Cuzzi’s 20/10,000 vision that missed Joe Mauer’s(notes) shot inside the line during the Division Series to a number of blown calls in Game 2 of the World Series, umpires dished out disappointment with far too much regularity for the most important time of the year.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

give a listen to Joyce's press conference.

[ghost of miles]

Here's the top half of the ninth, including Austin Jackson's incredible catch:

Galarraga's perfect game--ending

The whole thing just makes me ill and angry--so utterly avoidable. I've watched baseball for nearly 34 years now and seen some pretty bad blown calls, but on some level this one just about tops them all. Just an absolute travesty.

Edited June 3, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Chalupa]

I have no love whatsoever for the "tradition" of blown calls, especially ones so significant as to change the fate of a World Series or a perfect game. To me, officially pretending that Galarraga didn't throw a perfect game makes a sham of the integrity of baseball. Limited use of instant replay would do much more to protect said integrity. The NFL sure hasn't collapsed from using it! Plus the sacrosanct "immutability" of the game is way overblown... MLB has done all kinds of things in the past few decades that have altered the nature of the game, from lowering the pitching mound to the AL's instituting the DH. If we're going to stay in 1920, let's do away with batting helmets and bring back the color line! How on earth is instituting limited instant replay going to destroy baseball?

Instead we'll take away Galarraga's perfect game and leave Jim Joyce--an umpire who, by nearly all accounts, is an excellent and widely-respected longtime vet--with a permanent cloud of infamy around his name, all because MLB refuses to embrace the technology that would do wonders to ensure the statistical integrity of the game. I deeply respect your love and knowledge of the game, Dan, but I feel strongly that what happened last night was a needless crime against the game's history. Not only for Galarraga, who will not likely ever come close to such an achievement again, but for the fact that it would have been the third perfect game thrown in less than a month...astonishing. The only good that can come of this is if it does in fact lead MLB to finally accept some expanded form of instant replay.

Great post, Ghosty.

[Dave James]

BAD CALLS ARE PART OF THE GAME. DEAL WITH IT AND DON'T FUCK UP THE BEST GAME IN THE WORLD.

As much as I hate to say it, I agree with Dan. If Selig overturns this call, he's going to open up Pandora's Box. Not a good idea.

[papsrus]

Blown calls of this magnitude are extremely rare, obviously.

I don't know about basing a decision on instant replay on this one call, but I still feel like Selig could invoke the "best interests of the game" clause in this case to reverse the call.

Galarraga is a class act. Joyce seems like a class act, too. It's just a mistake that should be corrected.

ESPN is running a poll on this very question.

[Dan Gould]

" ... a crime against the history of the game"?

[ghost of miles]

NY Daily New's Mike Lupica: Selig should overturn call

There are a lot of things Bud Selig can't fix with his best-interest-of-the-game powers. This one he can make right.

In the best interests of a perfect game.

It would be a fine variation of what Lee MacPhail, then the American League president, did with the Pine Tar Game, Yankees-Royals back in the 80s. George Brett did hit a home run with a bat that had too much pine tar on it. Technically, the umpires were right to basically take what turned out to be a game-winning home run from Brett out of the stands.

MacPhail said no. He invoked the spirit of the law in sports, not the letter of the law. He said that the rule about pine tar HADN'T been written to take game-winning home runs out of the stands. The home run stood. You bet it did. The Yankees and Royals came back later on a Monday afternoon and finished the game, which the Royals did end up winning.

At the time, MacPhail basically reinterpreted a baseball rule, mostly in the interest of fairness. And the best interest of baseball. He ruled that George Brett didn't have pine tar on his bat to make the ball travel a longer distance. In addition, MacPhail said that umpire tim McClelland's decision to nullify the home run was "disproportionate" to the offense.

It was a fine moment for baseball.

ESPN's Ian O'Connor: Hey Bud, don't shrug this one off

EDIT: Holy crap--ESPN has an AP report up saying that MLB is indeed considering reviewing the call this morning and may decide to overturn it!

The article also reports that St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa says the call should be overturned.

Via Mike and Mike in the Morning:

Major League umpire Tim McClelland says he is in favor of instant replay in baseball. This call will follow Jim Joyce forever and that's not fair. Plus, McClelland thinks many other umpires are coming around to more replay in baseball.

Edited June 3, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Dan Gould]

Some "unwritten rule":

The last perfect game to be lost under similar circumstances was in 1972, when the Chicago Cubs’ Milt Pappas walked Larry Stahl of the San Diego Padres on a 3-2 pitch.

Bruce Froemming was the plate umpire at Wrigley Field that day who called ball four. Pappas flew into a rage, and though he got a no-hitter, he has never wavered in criticizing Froemming, who retired in 2007 after a 37-year career.

“The pitch was outside,” Froemming said Wednesday night in a telephone interview. “I didn’t miss the pitch; Pappas missed the pitch. You can look at the tape. Pappas, the next day, said, ‘I know the pitch was outside, but you could have given it to me.’ That pitch has gotten better over the years. That pitch is right down the middle now.”

In the next day’s Chicago Tribune, Pappas was quoted as saying: “The pitches were balls. They were borderline but balls. Froemming called a real good game.” Pappas has since said he was being diplomatic to avoid a fine for criticizing an umpire.

In a 2007 interview with ESPN, Pappas suggested that Froemming should have given him the benefit of the doubt, for the sake of history.

“I still to this day don’t understand what Bruce Froemming was going through in his mind at that time,” Pappas said. “Why didn’t he throw up that right hand like the umpire did in the perfect game with Don Larsen?”

He added: “It’s a home game in Wrigley Field. I’m pitching for the Chicago Cubs. The score is 8-0 in favor of the Cubs. What does he have to lose by not calling the last pitch a strike to call a perfect game?”

What Froemming would have lost is integrity, even if only he knew. Umpires can show no bias, to a team or to a situation. Froemming never worked the plate for a perfect game, but he never manufactured one, either.

As badly as Joyce missed his call in Detroit on Wednesday, he also did what he thought was right. That is the umpire’s job, even if it was no consolation to Joyce.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/sports/baseball/03detroit.html?ref=sports

[MartyJazz]

I have no love whatsoever for the "tradition" of blown calls, especially ones so significant as to change the fate of a World Series or a perfect game. To me, officially pretending that Galarraga didn't throw a perfect game makes a sham of the integrity of baseball. Limited use of instant replay would do much more to protect said integrity. The NFL sure hasn't collapsed from using it! Plus the sacrosanct "immutability" of the game is way overblown... MLB has done all kinds of things in the past few decades that have altered the nature of the game, from lowering the pitching mound to the AL's instituting the DH. If we're going to stay in 1920, let's do away with batting helmets and bring back the color line! How on earth is instituting limited instant replay going to destroy baseball?

Instead we'll take away Galarraga's perfect game and leave Jim Joyce--an umpire who, by nearly all accounts, is an excellent and widely-respected longtime vet--with a permanent cloud of infamy around his name, all because MLB refuses to embrace the technology that would do wonders to ensure the statistical integrity of the game. I deeply respect your love and knowledge of the game, Dan, but I feel strongly that what happened last night was a needless crime against the game's history. Not only for Galarraga, who will not likely ever come close to such an achievement again, but for the fact that it would have been the third perfect game thrown in less than a month...astonishing. The only good that can come of this is if it does in fact lead MLB to finally accept some expanded form of instant replay.

This was the very last out of the game that Joyce screwed up. Definitely, should have been reviewed. To those purists here, Joyce has to live with the fact that he simply choked in a critical spot, I mean the play wasn't even close.

Meanwhile what's in the air that this would have been the 3rd perfecto within a month after it took over a century to produce only 18 perfect games?

[Quincy]

I don't know about basing a decision on instant replay on this one call, but I still feel like Selig could invoke the "best interests of the game" clause in this case to reverse the call.

This situation is set up perfectly for a common sense solution.

Personally while I like the idea of "justice" through instant replay the NFL's system bogs down an already slow game. As slow as baseball is, the last thing I'd want is instant replay challenges which would slow it down even more.

Edited June 3, 2010 by Quincy

[papsrus]

I'm sure everybody is keeping one eye on the news snippets dribbling out in the aftermath, but thought this was worth taking note of:

DETROIT -- Umpire Jim Joyce wiped away tears as he took the field, a day after his blown call cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Major League Baseball is still deciding whether to review the call.

Joyce and Galarraga met at home plate Thursday afternoon as the pitcher presented the umpire with the Tigers' lineup card. Joyce shook hands with Galarraga and patted him on the shoulder.

There were some cheers when Joyce appeared at Comerica Park. There was a smattering of boos when he was introduced.

Joyce has admitted missing a call at first base Wednesday night on what would've been the final out. The veteran ump personally apologized to Galarraga after the game and hugged him.

Folks seem to appreciate that Joyce has owned up the his mistake and ... baseball, as life, goes on. Another classy move by Galarraga in particular, and the Tigers in general.