In order to complete a hat trick of commentary on the 2010 perfect games (or near perfect games, as the case may be), I wanted to post my thoughts on the Armando Galarraga / Jim Joyce debacle of last week. Obviously I'm late to the party on this one, but I wanted to let the dust settle a bit and allow the mass media to get their thoughts in first. For those of you who aren't familiar with the game or the situation: welcome back to Earth. I hope you enjoyed your interplanetary journey. Moving on . . .
It seems like the consensus regarding Galarraga-gate is that the situation ranks somewhere between Three Mile Island and Hurricane Katrina on the scale of Largest Disasters Ever to Occur on American Soil. People are saying the sanctity of the game will be in jeopardy until Major League Baseball implements instant replay, and that the lives of Galarraga and Joyce have been ruined forever by a scenario that could have been fixed by a simple review process. Perhaps not surprisingly, I disagree (after all, I can be rather combative). While it's true that I'm against instant replay in baseball and think that a small about of human umpiring error is part of the sport, my bigger issue is that I don't think this blown call is such a huge deal.
Undoubtedly, the whole thing is very unfortunate for both Galarraga and Joyce. I of course feel bad that Galarraga was robbed of a moment of baseball immortality, and realize that Joyce will, to some extent, have a solid career marred by this isolated incident. That being said, baseball is a team sport, and at the end of the night the Tigers still beat the Indians in a (relatively) meaningless regular season June baseball game by a 3-0 score. Had Galarraga been awarded the perfect game it still would have gone in the books as a 3-0 victory. While a number of individuals were negatively impacted by Joyce's blunder, the most important parties - the Cleveland Indian and Detroit Tiger baseball clubs - remained unaffected.
If baseball does implement instant replay at some point, it should be in the interest of ensuring that the right team wins each baseball game. While it's true that the errant call could have cost the Tigers the win (in addition to the perfect game), it didn't. To me, this situation doesn't compare this with Jeffrey Maier's interference with Tony Tarasco or Steve Bartman's confrontation with Moises Alou. The latter two played a major role in the outcome of playoff games; the former robbed a player of a remarkable individual accomplishment but, in my opinion, didn't damage the credibility of the sport. I'll be disappointed if this turns out to be the tipping point in the instant-replay-in-baseball war after baseball has basically ignored similar, more-significant episodes.
As I said, I feel for Armando Galarraga. But careers are rarely made off of a single regular season moment. Ask Bud Smith or José Jiménez if they'd trade their no hitters for better Major League careers and I'm sure they'd do it in a heartbeat. People will remember the perfect games by Roy Halladay and Randy Johnson because those guys are future Hall of Famers, and the perfect game will be one of many accomplishments etched onto their plaques in Cooperstown. One regular season game doesn't make or break a career. If Galarraga turns out to be a great pitcher over the next decade, we'll remember Galarraga-gate as a small bump in an otherwise smooth, long road. If he's out of baseball by 2012, we won't remember him even if he had gotten credit for the perfect game.
Jim Joyce's blunder will only define Armando Galarraga's career if we let it. Personally, I think this blown call has been way overblown.
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