Selig won't change bad call that cost perfect game

Associated Press ^ | 06-30-2010 | BEN WALKER

[presidio9]

Commissioner Bud Selig won't reverse an umpire's admitted blown call that cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Selig said Thursday that Major League Baseball will look at expanded replay and umpiring, but didn't specifically address umpire Jim Joyce's botched call Wednesday night.

A baseball official familiar with the decision confirmed to The Associated Press that the call was not being reversed. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that element was not included in Selig's statement.

Joyce said he erred on what would've been the final out in Detroit, where the Tigers beat Cleveland 3-0. The umpire personally apologized to Galarraga and hugged him after the game, then took the field at Comerica Park on Thursday in tears.

Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski had said the team wouldn't ask MLB to overturn the call. The mistake denied Galarraga the 21st perfect game in history, and the first for the Tigers.

Joyce ruled Cleveland's Jason Donald safe at first base, but later said he got it wrong. Even in the sports world, where bad calls are part of the mix, this one reached way beyond the lines: the perfect game that wasn't.

Galarraga, who was barely known outside of Detroit before this week, and Joyce, whose career had flourished in relative anonymity, remained trending topics on Twitter more than 12 hours after the game ended. At least one anti-Joyce Facebook page popped up and

[Uncle Ike]

” Umpires rarely ask for help making calls like unless there’s a good reason for it. “

Batters and catchers can appeal a ‘check-swing’ call to the 1st or 3rd-base umpire, whichever has the better view...

As far as I know, that’s the only case where a player can appeal to change a call....

[Above My Pay Grade]

>>>Actually, the umpire made a judgement on a rule that Billy Martin showed him.
He then got overruled.<<<

Actually the umpire applied the wrong penalty for the excess pine tar. The rule clearly stated that the bat should be taken out of the game. There is no mention whatsoever of invalidating hits made with such a bat. The umpire made up that penalty out of thin air. He was the umpiring equivalent of an activist judge.

As for the blown call last night, I think Selig is getting it completely backwards. This was a very unusual situation, in that a) the call was clearly bad, b) the out would have been the last out of the game c) the game ended when the next batter made out, so correcting the call would have no impact on the outcome of the game d) most importantly, the bad call robbed a pitcher of one of the rarest achievements in sports, a perfect game.

IMO, Selig should have reversed this call, but made it clear it was only because a very special set of circumstances existed, and that it is very unlikely he would ever reverse another call.

In general I don’t like replay being used in officiating, and I especially hate it in baseball. Baseball games are already WAY too long and most of the calls (balls and strikes) are somewhat subjective.

IMO, it is best to let the calls stand as they were called on the field, and hope they more or less even out over the course of a game or over the course of the season.

Replay often gets in the way of the bad calls evening themselves out. How often do you see a bad holding or pass interference call against one team, that cannot be reversed, followed shortly by a bad out of bounds, catch/no catch or other reviewable call going in that team’s favor, only to be reversed by replay.

[Alberta's Child]

Technically, I don’t think batters and catchers have the right to do that. My understanding is that under the rules, the appeal to either umpire has to come from the home plate umpire himself (even if it’s the batter or catcher who calls for it), and the call of the 1st or 3rd base umpire can still be overruled by the home plate umpire (but never happens, for obvious reasons).

[Uncle Ike]

You’re probably right - I haven’t read a Major League rule book since my rabid-fan (Cubs - who else??) high-school days..

I’m just extrapolating from what I see on TV, where the batter or catcher points to the appropriate Ump, who then ‘thumbs’ or ‘waves’, but technically, as you say, the Home Ump might be in the middle of the exchange...

[presidio9]

If he hadn’t gotten cancer in the prime of his career, he’d probably have been the first Venezualan player elected to the HOF last year

I'll correct myself before the nerds do: Luis Aparicio shortstop for the White Sox, Orioles, and Red Sox, from the late 50's to the early 70's. When he retired, he held several American League defensive records for things like fielding percentage, put outs, and double plays. Some of those records have since been broken. He was a decent player, but his selection to the HOF may have been the inspiration for the Sonya Sotomayor confirmation. Talent-wise (and in terms of impact on the game), he wasn't in the same universe as el Gato.

[presidio9]

Given a call such as that which happened, all a manager needs to do is ask the “bad-call” umpire to “ask another umpire.” Then, if that umpire decides to ask another umpire, the other umpire is duty bound to truth ... and etc.

Good idea. For all future games in which a pitcher retires, say, his first 18 batters, his manager (or the opposing manager) should appeal every close play, complete with 5-10 minute umpire conferences. It's in the interest of the game after all.

[Alberta's Child]

A home plate umpire will rarely (if ever) exercise his authority in a case like that, even if the catcher or batter made the appeal without waiting for the umpire. It would be bad form for an umpire to prevent another umpire from making a call in that kind of situation.

[Uncle Ike]

” should appeal every close play, complete with 5-10 minute umpire conferences. It’s in the interest of the game after all. “

Perhaps, in such an instance, the game should be suspended until attorneys can be summoned, and completed after the courts have (after appropriate appeals) decided...

Then, it would be a truly modern “All-American Game”.

/sarc

[presidio9]

Let’s see: A (presumably) grown man taking the time to share an inaccurate description of the national pastime, and his opinion that he doesn’t care with a thread full of devotees? “Who cares?” would be redundant.

If you don’t like baseball, go play with yourself somewhere else.

[Kieri]

Who cares?

I haven't watched a baseball game in over ten years, but I care about this story. Nevermind I live in Michigan and there is no other story at the moment...but these two gents were class acts. The poor ump screwed up, admitted it, and asked for an apology. The ball player accepted it (and got a nice new Corvette from GM today).

I think this story is bigger than baseball. These are two MEN in the truest sense, reminding everyone what a "real man" is all about.

[klimeckg]

Bad calls no different than a bad catch, throw, tag, etc, it’s part of the game. The umps are part of baseball.

[bamahead]

I was at that Hawks-Heat game where they replayed the final 51 seconds, before starting the next official game. The Hawks still won out, but it was strange to watch the final 51 seconds of overtime being played at a faster pace than the next game would even start with.

The short Sportscenter spoof they put on the Phillips Arena jumbotron before they played the final 51 seconds was pretty hilarious - they attributed the miscount of Shaq’s fouls to a scorekeeper with six fingers :) I wish I had that video...it was really well done.

[okie01]

Perhaps, in such an instance, the game should be suspended until attorneys can be summoned, and completed after the courts have (after appropriate appeals) decided...

Since all 162 G would end in an appeal and, come October, every team would be sporting an 0h-and-Oh record, everybody would be tied for first.

Whereupon, to be fair, a Blue Ribbon Commission of academics, retired politicians and lawyers would then decide who should be in the World Series.

[Lakeshark]

I guess he thought Brett was part of the bat...../sarcasm

I agree with your post, it makes no sense to not overturn that call. It hurts no one, while giving honor to what actually happened.

A perfect game.

[Repeal 16-17]

You can’t change a call after the game is over for gosh sakes!

I'm not at all surprised that Commissioner All-Star Tie didn't change the call. However, I do believe he had the authority to do so under the ever-present "best interest of baseball" power. Based on this power, the Commissioner can do almost anything regarding MLB.

BTW, the Commissioner did say expansion of instant replay and the state of umpire training will be reviewed.

[frogjerk]

Why not? Everyone admits it was a mistake.

[Chode]

give him an * and be done with it...

[BluesDuke]

Talent-wise (and in terms of impact on the game), [Luis Aparicio] wasn't in the same universe as [Andres Gallaraga].

I don't know if you realise this, but according to the Bill James-created Hall of Fame gauges of batting standards and the batting monitor, Andres Gallaraga meets 35 percent of the batting standards and scores 114 on the monitor. The average Hall of Famer would meet 50 percent of the standards and score 100 on the monitor. Kind of makes Gallaraga a borderline Hall of Famer. Now, read carefully: Luis Aparicio meets 36 percent of the batting standards and scores 150 on the monitor.

Does that make Little Looie, who is in the Hall of Fame, El Gato Grande's bonafide superior?

Well, first consider just what put Aparicio in the Hall of Fame in the first place: his speed and his defence. He brought the stolen base back to the American League at a time when the league seemed about as comfortable with the stolen base as with non-anesthetised root canal work. The downside was that it obscured the fact that Aparicio was one of the two most overrated leadoff men of his time (the other: arguably, Bobby Richardson, whose singular ability to avoid the strikeout deceived a lot of people into thinking that a man with a sub-.300 lifetime on-base percentage was some sort of leadoff genius) whose on-base percentage only reached above .350 once---toward the end of his career, during his encore with the White Sox.

Gallaraga was certainly a bigger power threat; yet he only led his league in the truly run-productive categories three times in a nineteen-year career. He was a fair-to-middling defender, a fair-to-middling baserunner. He may or may not have powered up enough to reach the Hall of Fame had he not lost that season to cancer, but we'll never really know for sure, particularly with some of the stat inflation he experienced in his Colorado seasons.

It isn't fair to consider Aparicio's Hall of Fame selection as the precedent for the Sonya Sotomayor confirmation. He was the outstanding defencive shortstop of his time over both his first tour with the White Sox and his first season in Baltimore, and his return of the stolen base to the American League way of thinking had, I think, a far larger impact on the game overall than anything Gallaraga brought to the table.

Gallaraga made five All-Star teams to Aparicio's ten, and even if Aparicio had only made five his would have been more meaningful because he made them at a time when the fans didn't vote for the All-Star teams and there couldn't be any suggestion that Aparicio benefitted from popular sentiment. (Only once did Aparicio play in an All-Star Game managed by his own manager.) Anomalously enough, Aparicio has one second-place Most Valuable Player award finish (in 1959, when he lost to his teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Nellie Fox), while Gallaraga never finished higher than sixth in any season's MVP voting.

I had once hoped that Aparicio's election to the Hall of Fame would help speed Bill Mazeroski's, since what Mazeroski had to sell most of all was lots and lots of defence (he may still be the greatest defencive player of all time at any position, he retired with the best such statistics of any position player as it was) and the Hall of Fame was still not quite ready to elect someone purely on his glove no matter how much impact he had on his teams or on his game.

So as to whether Aparicio or Gallaraga was the better player or had the greater impact on the game, I'd have to say it was Aparicio . . . though the margin isn't huge.

I used to hear a lot of interesting arguments about the deal that sent Aparicio to Baltimore. I was somewhat surprised that the White Sox were willing to part with him considering that they didn't have that much behind him in the organisation for his position, but it did bring Hoyt Wilhelm to the White Sox and Wilhelm was a very valuable relief pitcher for them for several seasons, while it gave the Orioles one key to their World Series winning team of 1966.

As for El Gato Grande, the blow I'll remember was the last bomb of his career: he pinch-hit for Troy Glaus in the top of the ninth against Oakland's Justin Lehr, with the Angels already up 9-0, the American League West all but clinched, and Glaus in need of rest for the postseason. Galarraga sent an 0-1 pitch over the left center field fence. The Angels held on for the 10-0 blowout and spent the final two days of the season getting ready for a division series. Galarraga wasn't on the postseason roster, but he did a fair enough job for them over the final week, standing in and up when, among other things, Jose Guillen was thrown off the team for exploding when manager Mike Scioscia tried to lift him late for a pinch runner.

[itsahoot]

A game is a game.

Not really, in this case it is big business.

[oh8eleven]

Luis Aparicio shortstop for the White Sox
I grew up in NYC, 50s and 60s, and watched Aparicio play against the Yanks all the time. Smoooooooooooooth.
I think Omar's next ...