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Unfortunately the wrong call must stand

Major League Baseball made the right call on the blown call.

Major League Baseball made the right call on the blown call.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was outright robbed of a perfect game on Wednesday night when with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning Cleveland Indian Jason Donald hit a grounder to second, the throw to first beat Donald by a half step, yet first base umpire Jim Joyce emphatically called him safe.

With replay in place only to validate home runs, the call stood.

The next batter grounded out to end the game.

Joyce stood by his call until seeing the replay after the game. Since then he has fully and tearfully admitted his mistake and has apologized profusely.

He didn’t cost Galarraga a win, he cost him a piece of history— he could have become just the 21st pitcher in the 141 years of MLB history to send down 27-straight batters.

Yet Galarraga for his credit has shown more class in the forgiveness of Joyce than I think anyone could have expected.

“There’s no doubt he feels bad and terrible,” Galarraga said Thursday. “I have a lot of respect for the man. It takes a lot to say you’re sorry and to say in interviews he made a mistake.

“I’m sad, but I know that I pitched a perfect game. The first 28-out perfect game.”

The situation brought calls from around the sports world and beyond — reaching as high as the White House — for MLB commissioner Bud Selig to retroactively reverse the call and bail out his umpire and give Galarraga the perfect game.

It is a notion that Selig has rejected.

It is a tough, harsh judgement, but for once I have to applaud Selig.

You cannot change history — even if it is only a few hours old.

It absolutely sucks for Galarraga and Joyce, but you have to live with your mistakes and unfortunately the mistakes of others.

History is filled with errors.

What Selig has said, however, that causes me to pause, is that he will look into expanding the use of instant replay in the future. I have always been categorically against replay, and all I ask is for him to tread lightly. This was an extreme case and a knee-jerk reaction would be terrible.

There is no perfect replay system out there and calls are still missed and blown — it is not a cure all, but a crutch.

This isn’t the first blown call of consequence, and it is not even close to the most tragic.

Off the top of my head there was the hand goal by France’s Theirry Henry in injury time that eliminated Ireland from the final stage of World Cup qualifying. Had the goal not counted Ireland would have advanced to soccer’s grandest stage and powerhouse France would have been on the outside looking in.

There’s also the 1999 Stanley Cup Final in which Dallas Star Brett Hull scored the cup-winning goal in overtime with his foot in the crease against the Buffalo Sabres — a goal waived off a thousand times during the regular season but not in this case. The real kicker there is replay was available but not used.

Or even more appropriately there is the 1985 World Series where umpire Don Denkinger’s blown call on an almost identical play helped seal the fate of the St. Louis Cardinals as the Kansas City Royals clinched the championship.

The impact on the future of Galarraga doesn’t even come close to the impact on those franchises. But the powers at be never did intervene in the aftermath of those games.

What these instances have proven, however, is that the non-perfect game will live forever, even if it is in infamy — it will be much more than just a recorded game in the annals of MLB history.

jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com