Jim Joyce costs Armando Galarraga perfect game
Perfection is hard to come by. With so many factors against you it’s almost impossible to be perfect, except for those 20 times it’s already happened.
Pitching a perfect game requires skill, patience and most of all a lot of luck, and that luck wasn’t with Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga on Wednesday night.
After 8 2/3 innings Galarraga need just one more out to complete the 21st perfect game in MLB history – and the third this month - but was denied by umpire Jim Joyce who wrongly called the Cleveland Indians’ Jason Donald safe at first.
Donald had hit a ground ball to first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who, ranged to his right, set his feet and threw to Galarraga who was covering first base. Inexplicably Joyce called Donald safe, a call which 99 times out of a 100 Joyce would have called out.
As the 28-year-old Galarraga squeezed the ball in his glove ready to celebrate, the call “safe” came from the umpire and the pitcher could only smile as boo’s and jeers echoed around Comerica Park. Replays have shown Donald wasn’t even close to being safe and after Jim Leyland gave Joyce an earful at the end of the game, the umpire admitted his mistake.
"It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the [stuff] out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game.
"I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay," Joyce said after the Tigers' 3-0 win.
Joyce has been umpiring for 22 years and after the game Tigers' general manager Dave Dombrowski said the umpire asked to speak to Galarraga.
"You don't see an umpire after the game come out and say, `Hey, let me tell you I'm sorry,' he felt really bad. He didn't even shower.
"I feel sad, I just watched the replay 20 times and there's no way you can call him safe,” Galarraga said.
Baseball rules don’t allow for replays to be used to overturn decisions that are judgement calls but does allow for replay to be used on suspect home run calls. This incident will no doubt spark calls for more usage of replays in baseball. New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi thinks MLB should take another look at the 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."
And for Detroit shortstop Ramon Santiago he knows history was made on Wednesday.
"I know I played in a perfect game. In my mind, on June 2nd, Armando Galarraga threw a no-hitter. I'm going to get a ball signed by him."
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