The 28! A perfect solution to baseball's "Imperfect Game"
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The 28! A perfect solution to baseball's "Imperfect Game"
This has been quite a depressing week -- dominated by problems that we seem powerless to solve. The growing list includes an oil leak 5,000 feet underwater, Israel and Gaza, a lack of jobs, the Phillies hitting a baseball, and now, speaking of baseball, the situation in Detroit with an admitted blown call by first-base umpire Jim Joyce ruining what would have been the 21st perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball by Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga.
Even people I know who don't much like baseball are talking about this one. How could you not? It's heartbreaking, especially since Galarraga seems like a very decent young man, who was pitching in the minors right before bumping against immortality.
A lot of fans believed there was a simple solution: Commissioner Bud Selig could use his superpowers to rule the play that umpire Joyce missed as an out, and put Galarraga's perfect game in the record books. But yesterday, Selig declined to do that. It pains me to say this, but I think that was the right call. Why? First of all, reversing this type of call is a Pandora's box; most notably, the outcome of the 1985 World Series was decided, ultimately, by a blown call every bit as bad as the one by Joyce. Why reverse one and not the other? And the more complicated argument is that imperfection -- as epitomized by Joyce and his mistake -- is as much a sacred aspect of baseball as the perfection achieved by Roy Halladay and 19 others.
So what to do?
My thought from the moment I first learned of what happened is that the world can make things right for Galarraga only in one way, which is to make what he did even better than tossing a perfect game. One of the ways that can happen is already taking place, and that is the outpouring of adulation for the previously unknown Galarraga in Detroit and across the country.
But there needs to be more. And a thought occurs based on something I read on Twitter (where else do people get ideas) in which someone (and my apologies for not noting who it was) immediately congratulated Galarraga -- who retired the next batter after Joyce's blown call, despite all the uproar -- for throwing the first 28-out perfect game in baseball history.
That's it! "The 28!" Sure, only 20 guys have thrown a 27-out perfect game before. But only one man in the entire recorded history of big-league baseball (let's not go down the black hole of Harvey Haddix) has tossed "The 28," and that man is Armando Galarraga. Wherever happens in life, Galarraga would be remembered by fans and, at least informally anyway, by the baseball establishment as the only pitcher ever to throw "The 28."
How else do you immortalize it?
If feasible, the Tigers should change Galarraga's uniform number to No. 28. Then, later in the season, unveil one of those commemorative paintings on or just over the outfield wall, showing Galarraga tossing that night with the number "28" painted next to it. This will guarantee the pitcher the one thing he really needs and deserves, which is his rightful place in baseball immortality. Let's be honest, some of the 20 players who tossed perfect games -- Mike Witt and Tom Browning, for example -- are remembered now only by hardcore fans. But "The 28" will still be talked about a century from now.
As for the fact that it won't be in the official record book as a perfect game, that's OK. Thanks to the massive steroids scandal of the 1990s and 2000s, baseball fans have already decided for themselves what achievements are real and which are not. Why should a perfect game be any different? Except this was better than a perfect game. It was "The 28"!
Have a perfect weekend.
Selig could have easily overturned it, as it did not affect the outcome (final score) of the game, only the stats of the game.— phillyccgwm- bird11, I agree with you. Being imperfect is what makes baseball perfect. And different from the rest of sports. People will be talking about this game for years. Take the human element out, put in more cameras for off field decisions, and you just have another video game.— Catch22
Catch22 - I doubt we would be talking about this if he had pitched a perfect game. The human element is what makes this a story.— bird11
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ- Will is changing the subject because of todays news:- "Virtually all the job creation in May came from the hiring of 411,000 census workers. Such hiring peaked in May and will begin tailing off in June. By contrast, hiring by private employers, the backbone of the economy, slowed sharply. They added just 41,000 jobs, down from 218,000 in April and the fewest since January." http://www.cnbc.com/id/37507250 More bad news for Barry: NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks fell to their lowest level in four months Friday after the government said hiring remains weak and another European country warned its economy was in trouble. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 323 points to close below 10,000. It was the lowest finish since February and the third-worst slide of the year. Major indexes all lost more than 3 percent. The drop pushed the market back into "correction" mode, meaning a decline of at least 10 percent from a recent high. Interest rates slid after traders shoveled money into the safety of Treasurys and the dollar.
- Will-I don't blame you for changing the subject. There's not much positive happening in DC & America these days.— Phillies2008WSChamps
- How about if it was the other way: runner called out, perfect game--and the replay shows the runner actually was safe? Hmmm.....— Falls Ed
Had this been Facebook instead of your blog, I could have clicked n "Like," which would be about the right amount of appreciation.- So what should we do about Harvey Haddix? Erect a giant "36" on one of the hills in Pittsburgh? This is the worst column of yours I have read, Will. I'm with you on the left, but not with you on baseball.— Delaware Jim
- Will, Selig should have declared it a perfect game, period! No expo facto. No 28 out perfect game. When the NFL introduced replay, it didn't reintroduce previously blown plays. When MLB introduced replay of questionable fair or foul homers, it didn't review all the other questionable shots. The odds of a similar situation reoccuring are minimal. Besides, the ump admitted in no uncertain terms that he blew the call. And for all the so-called "baseball purests" out there against changing the call, I compare you to the athiest in the fox hole that asks for God's help when it's he who's under fire. If Armando Galarraga were your kid and cheated out of a historical performance, you'd be like the athiest in the fox hole and shouting bloody murder!— lefty
- Are you forgetting Harvey Haddix? He threw a 36!— Zak44
- Mirror, can you give us the name of someone who has successfully cleaned up a major oil spill? Because remnants of the last one in 1979 are still washing up. Come to think of it, we're cleaning up THIS one as the direct result of Republicans removing so many "barriers" for entrepreneurs - silly little things like permits and regulations. In the meantime, you can always move to Somalia, an unregulated Paradise!
It mirrors the oldest struggle in jurisprudence, the tension between order and justice.
Comment removed.
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