Blown Umpire Call on 27th Batter Costs Detroit Pitcher Galarraga His Perfect Game!
I was piqued the other day when umpire Bill Hohn tossed Astro pitcher Roy Oswalt in the third inning for being frustrated with his postage stamp strike zone. Today I am enraged over the fact that a horrible call by umpire Jim Joyce yesterday on the 27th batter of the game has cost Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga his perfect game. With the pitcher himself covering first base on what should have been – indeed was – the last out by way of a grounder on every batter he had faced, Joyce called the runner safe. He would admit his error later upon an examination of the replay after the game, but the perfect game was still lost forever.
The Galarraga perfecto would have been the third such animal in thirty days, the only time that three of these most improbable of all baseball jewels have adorned the neck of our national game in a lone season of play. It would’ve also been only the 21st perfect game in major league history. Now it will simply have to be the shared bad dream of pitcher Galarraga and umpire Joyce, and all others of us who care about these things, from here to kingdom come.
I haven’t been this upset over the outcome of a baseball contest since Game Six of the 1986 National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and the Houston Astros. At least that one turned on managerial decisions and what happened on the field. This one – THIS ONE – turned only on what one game official saw with his naked brain and eye against what we could have ascertained accurately had instant replay been permissible under the circumstances.
Look! Nobody wants this kind of outcome. Not umpire Joyce. Not pitcher Galarraga. Not the players. And not the fans. As per usual, change will now come to baseball on the heels of disaster. It’s time to make even greater use of instant reply to keep this sort of thing from happening again.
When instant replay was approved a couple of years ago for fair/foul and distance marker calls on home runs, it was done to keep blown perceptual decisions of the umpire’s fallible human eye from wrongly affecting the outcome of games. Shouldn’t we also try to extend that same protection to the integrity of baseball history?
We already know that instant replays do not resolve all questionable calls and that it would be too time-consuming to allow them on every play. Some errors are going to simply continue, especially on the distorted ways the human eye sees the strike zone differently from umpire to umpire. Until we can get to a point of calling balls and strikes by laser ray, I don’t see balls and strikes consistency getting much better,
This thing that happened yesterday, however, is a horse of a different color. Instant replay clearly showed that the 27th batter of the game was OUT by a couple of feet on the grounder play at first base. Had instant replay been allowable under the circumstances, history could have been correctly registered with no shame upon the umpire’s missed observation – and we would not all be sitting around today trying to figure out a way to make anger, remorse, and regret digestible.
What kind of sauce tastes good with a boiled dead rat, anyway?
Here’s what I propose as protection against the repetition of yesterday’s improbable rat boil:
Any time a pitcher enters the ninth inning with a no-hitter going, instant replay should be allowable on any questionable field play affecting safe/out calls. For an umpire’s “safe” call on any runner to be reversed, there must be clear evidence on tape to support an overrule. This condition will continue in the game for as long as the pitcher remains in a position to throw either a no-hitter or perfect game. and will cease as an appeal option as soon as a hit is recorded. Decisions on instant replay reviews will be handled in the same manner as the one in place now for foul/fair balls and home runs.
Do it now, Commissioner Selig. The integrity of the game’s history is on the line.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 3, 2010 at 1:48 pm |
It sure would have been nice in the 1985 World Series when the Royals baserunner (Orta) was called safe while the Cardinals pitcher (Worrell) was clearly on the base to record an out.
To Cardinal fans this particular play is simply known as “the call”.
June 3, 2010 at 3:06 pm |
Another perspective from many years ago (1979) as found in Tom Gorman’s book Three and Two!
An umpire can work the plate in the pitcher’s perfect game, and nobody’s going to come up and shake his hand. I know. I saw it happen. I was there, working the left-field line in Yankee Stadium in 1956 when Don Larsen pitiched the only perfect game in World Series history….And you probably can’t remember the name of the umprire who worked the plate.
Babe Pinelli*, a good umpire, a very good umpire, worked the plate on that day, his last plate game. He retired two days later. Babe Pinelli was the Lou Gehrig of the umpires, our Iron Man. Twenty-two years in the National League, never missed a game. He was the forgotten man on Larsen’s big day.
Pinelli called it all the way, down to a tough decision on Larsen’s last pitch. With two outs in the ninth, Dale Mitchell came in as a pinch batter for the Dodgers. The first pitch was a ball. Mitchell then took a strike and swung and missed, for strike two. Larsen’s next pitch was on the outside corner.
“Strike three,” Pinelli shouted, and the perfect game was in the books. Some sportswriters and players later said the last pitch was outside, that it should have been a ball. There are still arguments about it. But that was in the future.
The crowd – more than sixty thousand people – jumped to its feet. Yogi Berra, the Yankee catcher, ran to the mound and leaped. Larsen caught him like a baby…A small group of men – six of us, the umpires, in dark blue suits – walked off the field, ignored and forgotten. We went into our dressing room. It was empty. Babe Pinelli cried like a baby.
Not one person came in to congratulation Pinelli, to say, “Babe, you did a fine job – twenty-two years in the league and you finish with the first perfect game in World Series history.”
Nobody showed, not the commissioner, not the president of the National League. I thought it was a disgrace.
But let’s say that Pinelli had called that last pitch to Mitchell a ball. The count goes to two and two. And let’s say Mitchell hits the next pitch for a home run, or between short and third for a single. That’s the end of Larsen’s perfect game. From then on anything is possible.
But history never reveals its alternatives. I don’t know what would have happened on the playing field. But I do know if Pinelli’s call on Mitchell has broken up Larsen’s perfect game, it would have become a thing of ferocious interest. You wouldn’t have been able to get into our dressing room. The Yankee players would have been screaming. The sportswriters would have come on Pinelli in waves, like the Marines on a beachhead. “Babe, why didn’t you call it a strike?” “Wasn’t it a strike?” “Are you sure?” “But Yogi said it was a strike. He said it caught the corner.”
And so it would have gone. But that’s the way we play our game. If everything is easy, every call a natural, you don’t see anybody. If there’s trouble you see everybody….
–Sumner
* I heartily suggest tracking down Pinelli’s own autobiography, Mr. Ump. You won’t be disappointed.
June 3, 2010 at 3:50 pm |
Sumner: That was exactly my point in the “Balls & Strikes” piece I wrote two days ago. The most successful umpire is the one we do not remember. If he gets it right, most of the time, most of us won’t even know his name. – Bill
June 3, 2010 at 4:02 pm |
I don’t think it will happen. The unions still oppose replay. Even with replay in place, home run calls are still botched, just as NFL replays are still botched. There will always be calls to expand replay and if you expand it only for no-hitters, what happens when a similar call is blown in a playoff or World Series game (such as the Denkinger call on Orta or the Brocklander call on Craig Reynolds in the 1986 NLCS)? How wide do you expand the envelope and why should replay be okay in some circumstances and not others?
I like the “challenge” method in football (although coaches don’t) and could see it applied to baseball (exempting ball and strike calls). But there would need to be a groundswell of baseball people favoring it which currently doesn’t exist.
June 3, 2010 at 4:49 pm |
Selig should reverse the call and give him a perfect game in the records. Come on, it was the last play of the regular game and he also got the next guy out.
Who would begrudge him the perfect game?
June 3, 2010 at 4:52 pm |
Much needs to be changed with the way umpires do their jobs. First, they need to be less confrontational. Many umpires not only esacerbate arguments, they start them themselves. Their relentless incompetence under pressure was never clearer than in last year’s playoffs and World Series, when call after call was blown. Here’s what needs to happen. As to umpire conduct, all umpires will henceforth be wired for sound, so that all arguments can be listened to afterwards. If the umpire uses foul language or insults the player or manager personally, he will be subject to the same kinds of fines and suspensions now imposed on the players and managers. As to fixing blown calls, there will be a replay official in a booth near the pressbox who will check all close calls, and will be able to talk to the crew chief via an earpiece so that bad calls are corrected as quickly as possible. If you think this will add to the length of games, think of how much time is spent on arguing calls. This way, when a manger starts out of the dugout to protest a call, the crew chief just points to his ear to let the manager know the call is being reviewed.
June 3, 2010 at 6:16 pm |
So if a batter makes the third out in the 9th on a close play, can I assume that the celebration is halted and a replay is allowed. and the no-hitter taken away if it shows that the batter was in fact safe? Fair is fair, no?
June 3, 2010 at 6:50 pm |
I want to give Armando Gallraga a perfect game because it is nice and feels good. But that feeling passes with time and you forget it. So now I have had a change of heart. I don’t want the ruling reversed. Tragic failure is part of baseball. It is the tragic failures we remember. What is Casey at the bat about? A, oh, so close, tragic failure.
I read there have been 20 perfect games in MLB history. Can you name them? I can’t. I can tell you Addie Joss, and this years guys of Dallas Braden and Roy Halliday. I can also tell you that Don Larsen got one in the World Series. Beyond that, I can’t tell you who or when. And I consider myself a nut about baseball history. 4 out of 20. That is a .250 batting average. As a major leaguer I know they are looking to trade me in the offseason.
I can tell you the who AND when for the biggest perfect game that wasn’t. The Harvey Haddix game. In 1958 Harvey was pitching for the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates against the NL champions Milwaukee Braves. Harvey pitched a perfect game not for 9 innings, but for 12! 36 batters out in row!! (Gallaraga got 28 if you count the safe ruling as an out. He still has 8 more to go to match Harvey.) But Harvey’s team could not score a run themselves. So it was a 0-0 tie into the 13th. In the 13th inning the Pirate shortstop booted a ball and Hank Aaron reached first on an error. Perfect game gone. No hitter still in tact. The next batter was Joe Adcock. One of the Braves power hitters hitting right behind Aaron. Adcock hit a homerun to win the game. He was so excited with what he did he passed Aaron on the basepath. So the Braves won 1-0. Harvey Haddix went from 12 inning perfect game, to a no hitter, to a loss in the span on two batters. By the way, the Braves were stealing the Pirate’s signs. So for 12 innings they knew what was coming and STILL could not hit him! Talk about a great pitching performance!
When I think of it, it is the near misses that we remember. I can’t tell you 16 out of 20 pitchers of perfect games. But I can tell you one that wasn’t. I would guess most people are the same. Can you tell me how many astronauts landed on the moon or better yet give me their names? But I would guess you know that Apollo 13 DIDN’T land on the moon. It is the great performances that end up as tragic near misses we remember. It is not our successes. I want Armando Gallaraga to be remembered for what he did last night. That is why I say, don’t overturn the call. Keep it a one hitter so we remember Armando and his great performance.
June 3, 2010 at 8:24 pm |
Selig should do the unpresedented thing and rule that it was a hit, not an
out ! Also state that this was a once in a century ruling that he or no
other commissioner is likely to repeat
For many reasons: it would (1) not affect the outcome of the game,
(2) change the statastics of two batters to
the correct amount,
(3)give the correct credit to the pitcher.
June 3, 2010 at 10:04 pm |
A wrong could still be righted if our beloved commissioner would step up and do they right thing at this point: reverse the call! That , of course, would be unprecedented and historic. However, don’t look for it. Bud’s record with doing the right thing hasn’t been real strong up to this point.
Mike
June 3, 2010 at 10:47 pm |
4 out of 20, a .250 batting average? And you call yourself a baseball nut?
June 4, 2010 at 3:11 am |
Your math isn’t too good Chuck. 5 out of 20 would be .250, 4 out of 20 is only .200.
June 4, 2010 at 3:53 am |
Could the pitcher have appealed to the home plate umpire to rule on the call? I hate instant reply but there is a time and a place for it. I thought the pitcher really took the high road after the call but I’m sure he was in shock. Electronic sensors in the bases that tell who touched first? I’ll start working on it tonight.
June 4, 2010 at 4:09 am |
Such outrage and indignance over an individual accomplishment…it’s a team game, and the call didn’t affect who won…
June 4, 2010 at 4:08 pm |
Games are not played for individual acheivement. They are played to determine a winner/loser which eventually takes us to post season and an eventual champion. The blown call did not affect the result of the game. Had the call allowed Cleveland to rally and win the game, that would have been a problem.
June 5, 2010 at 6:29 pm |
I read the book “Perfect” which at the time is was published had a total of 17 in total, including Larsen and Koufax. And not withstanding the blown call, three more perfectos have been pitched in the last 12 months. Considering that the first 17 beauties were pitched in over 100 years, the question comes to my mind about how and why we have three plus the one blown the other day in such a short timeframe. Dare we consider the possibility of a “fix” being part of this astounding situation.
June 6, 2010 at 2:40 pm |
After Harv’s Perfect game, he gave each umpire engraved silver bowls in appreciation. They were shocked! Yes, it was a perfect game.