Heartbreak In Detroit

Tough break for Armando Galarraga tonight. The Tigers pitcher had a Perfect Game through 8 2/3 innings, only to see it snatched right out from under him by a blown call at first. Who deserves the blame? The obvious culprit here is first base umpire, Jim Joyce, who will probably receive some much-deserved hate mail over the next week or two. But in reality, there are two other individuals who indirectly affected the outcome of this game. See, the Perfect Game is widely considered the rarest feat in sports. From 1880-2009, there were only 18 ever thrown. 1880 was also the only season in which two Perfect Games were thrown – until this year. First Dallas Braden threw the 19th in history, followed a couple weeks later by Roy Halladay.  Suddenly, the Perfect Game was becoming more common. Enter Galarraga, who was putting in a solid bid to throw the 21st Perfect Game in 130 years, but also the 3rd in the last month. Somewhere the powers that be were cringing at the thought. I’m not crying foul here, but someone’s emotions got the best of them here. Usually you’ll see the umpire give a pitcher a little more leeway behind the plate down the stretch of a No Hit bid, but if not for Braden and Halladay already notching Perfect Games this year, that umpire calls it an out. You can’t argue that. I’m not sure why all of a sudden pitchers are throwing no hitters three times more often that Ian Kinsler and Grady Sizemore are homering, but maybe pitchers are just getting better. It’s like they say in basketball, great offense always beats great defense (who is that, Mark Jackson?). Perhaps in baseball, great pitching always beats great hitting. So, they may have stopped Armando Galarraga this time, but there’ll be another guy, and another guy after that, who can’t be stopped by a close call. The bottom line is it’s going to happen, and maybe lose its luster a bit, but the game hasn’t changed that much. Before you know it, there’ll be a five or six year span where no one does it. You can’t change history – it’ll all even out over time. So here’s a big BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO for Jim Joyce.