There’s no repercussions, what-if’s . . nada . . to voiding this particular umpire’s admittedly bad call.
This is off the beaten track of actual politics in an off-the-wall effort to put on display an actual example of how politics can so warp what is so easily understood to the common man and woman.
Watch for yourself.
When Umpire Jim Joyce called Jason Donald safe, he and he alone cost Detroit Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. It’s as simple as that.
I understand there’s a strong sense of permanence and ‘in the moment’ to baseball. As a fan, that’s part of the sport I love (and part of the sport I would most love to play). But even I see the folly of Bud Selig’s apparent refusal to fairly correct an honest mistake.
This wasn’t 8-innings, 8 1/3 innings — This was 8 2/3 innings. Had this been a game-ending home run or Johnny Bench moment, the situation could be (easily) rectified. This doesn’t even take 10 players and an umpire crew to retake the field. The call is there for all to see. The man who made the (bad) original call has already admitted his mistake and done the best he can to correct the record. It’s simple — As odd a fact as it is, the third perfect game of the still young 2010 season has been pitched.
Bud Selig is, more so than in any other sport, the King of his respective sport. He has the power of edict. And he should use it.
For the record, I have tremendous admiration for both Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce — The former has shown tremendous poise in the face of unbelievable letdown, and the latter has similarly shown that he’s both human . . . and willing to admit that fact. To force each to live in a world that mandates perfection each and every moment offers tragic irony to both the situation and the reality we all need to face, that we’re human, that we make mistakes, and it’s in the character of how we deal with those mistakes that we often best demonstrate what we’re truly made of.
How can everyone see that BUT Bud Selig? Fix the mistake. Or refuse to acknowledge a perfect game that was actually . . . Perfect?!?
The only imperfection I see in this whole mess is Bud Selig’s inaction and inability to ‘make the call’.
