Balancing Passion and Perspective

So, the baseball world is up in arms once again. This time an umpire blew a call on what should have been the final out of a perfect game pitched by the Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga. Jim Joyce, the umpire who made the call, later admitted he made a mistake. Ok, so he made a mistake. People do that sometimes. We can move on now, right? Wrong.

Joyce's call came at a critical moment in the game, and that's why baseball fans are so distraught. If the blown call had come on the very first play, and Galarraga had gone on to retire the next 27 batters in order, would fans be so angry? I suspect that if it had come as late as the fifth inning, the public outcry would be much more muted. In addition to that, the play was not a very close one. If the difference between the runner being safe or out had been detectable only on freeze frames in replays, people would have to cut Joyce some slack, but there was no question that the runner was safe, even at full speed.

There was a movement, ultimately denied, for Bud Selig, baseball's commisioner, to retroactively reverse the call. Selig was right in declining to act. Joel Sherman nails the reason why.

There is a call now for Selig to retroactively restore a perfect game for Galarraga. It feels right. But it is so wrong. Ultimately, Joyce's blunder cost Galarraga history, but not his team a game. If Selig reverses this call what happens the next time there is an umpire’s mistake that literally costs a team a game? How do you fix, for example, Galarraga's spot in history, but not Phil Cuzzi's miserable call in the playoffs last year that possibly cost the Twins' a game against the Yankees?

Human error is an indelible part of the game. In fact, it is a part of every sport where a human is expected to make an impartial judgment on what happened (or didn't happen). Sometimes these judges are going to make a mistake. One can hope that Major League Baseball gets the best umpires available, but if you think about it, the best judges are already in our federal, state, and local courts (hopefully). At the end of the day, that's OK. Joyce's blunder was critical to the game, but it certainly was not of critical importance to Americans in general. That fact is lost by casual fans and congressmen in the passion for a game loved by millions.

I understand the frustration of Tigers fans. The Tigers have never pitched a perfect game. I'm a Mets fan, and the Mets have never even thrown a no-hitter. Believe me, I understand. Keeping that in mind, it's understandable that Tigers fans should stay disgruntled longer than most, but nobody needs a congressional resolution. The rest of the baseball world just needs to get over it.