Galarraga, Joyce and the Embarrassing Reality

As you know, Mike and I generally like to steer clear of non-fantasy specific issues. Sometimes, though, an issue becomes so large that it requires comment. Such is the case with Galarraga's perfect game last night.

The sports tragedy highlighted last night is how simple the solution really is. Forget instant replay for a moment. Perhaps Joyce, seeing Donald's reaction at first base and suffering a moment of self-doubt, quietly calls Marvin Hudson (the home plate umpire) and Jim Wolf (second base umpire) over, and the conversation goes something like this:

Joyce: Marvin, Jim...I'm not sure about this one...did I get this right?
Hudson: Umm, hate to say this: not even close.
Wolf: If he had the bag, Jim, the ball was there. Your call if he had the bag.
Joyce: Yeah, he had the bag. Jeez, I'm a jack%^$; let's get this call right.

Instead of holding a press conference where Joyce breaks down psychologically, Leyland talks about the human element of the game, and Galarraga just shrugs his shoulders and gives Joyce a hug, we are talking about one of the most masterful perfect games of all time. We are talking about three perfect games in 24 days. We are talking about the retirement of one of the greatest players of our generation.

While the call itself is embarrassing to baseball, it gets worse. Hockey, America's minor league sport, embarrassed baseball by getting it right via instant replay less than 15 minutes later! Hockey not only got it right that time, but a couple of periods later, got it right again.

No matter how you do replay, if you have the opportunity to even correct one bad call a game, why would you not do it? The integrity of the game? How is the integrity of the game preserved by what happened last night? The "human element" of the game? Let's ask Don Denkinger about the human element of the game, coming home every day for over two years to police in his driveway and death threats. Bad calls are a part of the game? Well, genocide, murder, rape, theft, et al. are all "part of life," but we try to stop them anyway, right?

The loss of a piece (pieces actually) of baseball history is tragic. Perhaps more tragic is that this easily correctible issue, this easily correctible call, must now overshadow the retirement of Ken Griffey, Jr. Overdue or not, it is the wrong end to a great career.

Thank you Ken, for everything. And thank you, too, Armando Galarraga. You may believe no one is perfect, but at least for one day, you were.