My Ballpark Mall

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Thursday, June 03, 2010 Posted by Steve Treder
Rotten as the bizarre finish to Armando Galarraga’s imperfect game was, there is this to consider: by not being credited with a perfect game, Galarraga will very likely be better remembered decades from now than if that play had been (correctly) called as out.

The best historical comparable to this circumstance is that of Harvey Haddix, and his celebrated non-achievement of May 26, 1959, a game which has ever since been familiar to nearly every serious fan as, simply, “The Harvey Haddix Game.” That game and that pitcher gained far more permanent prominence because of the heartbreaking outcome than if it had been a successfully completed, actual, garden variety perfect game.

So though it’s no doubt cold comfort to him, Armando Galarraga, an otherwise forgettable journeyman pitcher, will almost certainly find his name being uttered by fans a very long time from now, as they shake their heads over the amazing “Armando Galarraga Game.” He will be known forever to a degree that, say, Dallas Braden won’t.

Steve Treder can often be found spending way too much time talking baseball at Baseball Primer. He welcomes your questions and comments via e-mail.

And That HappenedPosted by Craig Calcaterra
Tigers 3, Indians 0: So, did anything notable happen in this game?

Mariners 2, Twins 1: Between a tornado warning (see the Cubs-Pirates recap at the bottom) and the Armando Galarraga stuff I was unable to pay any attention to Ken Griffey’s retirement before this game.  I will remedy that later today.

Dodgers 1, Diamondbacks 0: I watched way more of this game than I should have. Guess it was morbid fascination combined with being lulled into a state of happy by Vin Scully’s voice. It totally screwed with my judgment too. In the 14th inning, Scully, after the second out, said something to the effect of “hope you don’t have any plans everybody . . .” before catching himself and saying ” . . . because unless Garret Anderson can do something here we’ll be heading to the 15th.”  My comment on Twitter at the time was “It’s possible that Vin thought there were already
three outs there, but more likely that he’s just realistic about Garret Anderson’s chances.” Of course Anderson then singled in Matt Kemp, ending the game.

Braves 2, Phillies 1: Hit this one up yesterday afternoon.  Atlanta now goes to face a Dodgers pitching staff that (a) hasn’t given up a run in forever, but (b) has to be tired after consecutive extra-inning performances.

Yankees 9, Orioles 1: The whole Yankees starting lineup was back for the first time in forever last night. Now that they’re done with that practice squad in the orange, black and gray uniforms they get to see how they play against real teams.

Rays 7, Blue Jays 3: Lord Almighty, the Rays like the late-inning drama, no? Carl Crawford’s ninth-inning grand slam didn’t put the Rays ahead, but it certainly put the game out of reach, as Tampa Bay puts up a six spot in the final frame for a come-from-behind victory.

Padres 5, Mets 1: At some point, just before I went to bed early, early this morning (yeah, I’m functioning on almost no sleep right now) I suffered this moment of panic, wondering if, between the Armando Galarraga thing, Griffey’s retirement, the Braves sweep of the Phillies and all of the amazing late-night action, if there was just too much baseball drama to handle. This one may have put me over the edge. Adrian Gonzalez 11th inning grand slam. Just an unreal day of baseball yesterday.

Red Sox 6, Athletics 4: Big Papi — we can call him that now that he’s hitting like Big Papi again — hit the go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth. He was 2 for 2 with a double, that homer and two walks. Can a guy win Comeback Player of the Year for coming back from adversity that occurred in the same season?

Brewers 7, Marlins 4: Where would the Brewers be without Yovani Gallardo? In addition to giving up two runs in seven innings with four strikeouts, he hit a dinger.

Rangers 9, White Sox 5: Vlad Guerrero was scratched after getting popped in the eye by a ball at the batting cage during BP (the practice kind of BP, not the kind that spilled all that oil). He was not needed, however, as Matt Treanor homered and drove in four and Michael Young had three hits.

Astros 5, Nationals 1: Back-to-back wins for the Astros for the first time in nearly a month. Three errors for Ian Desmond, who now has 14 on the year.

Angels 7, Royals 2: Torii Hunter homered, doubled, singled and drove in three runs as the Angels take their sixth win in eight games.

Cardinals 4, Reds 1: Chris Carpenter allows only one run on four hits over eight innings to bring the Cards back into a tie for first place. Big boo-boo here: runner on first and third in the seventh, and Scott Rolen — the guy on first — got smacked by a ground ball. Just one of them things.

Giants 4, Rockies 1: A two-run double for the slumping Aaron Rowand and one run on four hits over eight innings for Chris Carpenter Matt Cain helps the Giants avoid the sweep.

Cubs vs. Pirates: Postponed. I’m assuming this was the same weather system that blew through my town a few hours earlier. We had tornado warnings and all kinds of fun stuff. My wife and kids and I were the basement for a while. While down there, my son found an old wooden Louisville Slugger I’ve had since I was a kid. My daughter looked at the name on it and asked “Daddy, who’s Gorman Thomas?”  My answer: “He was one of Harvey’s Wallbangers, dear.”  The my wife made me explain a little more thoroughly.

Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com

Wednesday, June 02, 2010 On Galarraga, Joyce and instant replayPosted by Joshua Fisher
“Come sit on my lap and let me tell you why your great-grandfather is the reason Baseball finally adopted full instant replay.”

–Jim Joyce, 2038.

Hey, you have to search for the silver lining, right?

Craig Calcaterra at NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk has it right:

It is absolutely imperative that baseball implement some form of replay now. This season, before the playoffs. The best way, in my view, is to simply station a fifth umpire in the official scorer’s box. Give him the same feed the broadcast guys have. Give him a buzzer and, when an obviously bad call like this one happens, have him call down to the crew chief and overturn the call.

I’d take it a step further. While the logistics of the in-park review system are designed and implemented, put somebody at headquarters on a monitor for each game. Give those people–I don’t care if they’re summer interns–a hard line to whatever phone in the ballpark connects to someone able to stop play immediately.

Why am I being so dramatic? Because Major League Baseball has on its hands this evening the mother of all public relations disasters. I’m not going to pull a Roy Williams here, but I will say this: Baseball’s response needs to be swift and forceful. Perhaps even needlessly wasteful. Anything to assure fans that every effort will be made to never miss an easy call again. There’s simply no excuse for this situation. None. Whatever time or nostalgia would be lost by implementing replay (if any) is now dwarfed by the gaping hole tonight’s call left in baseball history.

There is only one response Baseball can make to this disastrous event, and that response does not include the phrase “We’re looking into it.” A long-term solution can’t be worked out overnight, except…you know what? It can. And it starts with, “There will be a review process implemented across Major League Baseball as soon as humanly possible.” No conditions. No qualifiers. No equivocation. If there isn’t a full-fledged system tested and ready by the playoffs, Baseball will have lost more credibility with this fan than it has over any of the events of the last two decades.

Jim Joyce is getting killed tonight, and, yeah, he screwed up. But we’re only having this discussion because, for several years now, the powers that be have resisted adapting the game to changing technology. This was, unfortunately, bound to happen. There was going to be a Jim Joyce. Baseball has left its umpires out to dry, and whether it was the twenty-seventh out of a perfect game, a fair/foul call in a one-game playoff, or a questionable tag-up in the World Series, Commissioner Selig’s office doomed the game’s history to this fate by its obstinacy.

Armando Galarraga won’t get tonight back. Even if Baseball retroactively awards him his deserved perfect game (which it shouldn’t, but that’s another column), he won’t get the leap into Miguel Cabrera’s arms. And he won’t get the mob on the field. He won’t get his brilliant moment of immortality. Instead, no matter what else he does in his baseball career, he’ll be remembered for losing a perfect game on a bad call that didn’t need to stand. And Jim Joyce will forever be That Guy, which is bad enough for one night. Try that tag on for eternity and let me know how it feels.

Major League Baseball failed Galarraga, Joyce, the Detroit Tigers, all the game’s fans, and the game itself by resisting change for far too long. It is Bud Selig’s immediate and primary duty to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again. While no system will be in place to protect another perfecto bid this season, blown calls are a certainty. And several of them will have the potential to materially affect pennant races. Nothing happening in baseball tomorrow is more important than figuring out how to reverse those calls in time to protect the fairness of the game.

Baseball has been on a costly, messy witch hunt for the better part of a decade under the “level playing field” flag. The entire time, it foolishly and stubbornly refused to ensure that the most precious commodity in the game–the out–is distributed fairly. Changes must be swift in coming and thorough in effect. We’ve heard for too long about the importance of protecting the integrity of the game to wait another day for replay’s implementation throughout baseball. Fair or foul? Catch or trap? Safe or out? The players, umpires, and fans deserve the right answers to these questions, and they deserve them before another pitch is thrown. The changes aren’t due tomorrow. They were due several years ago.

Joshua operates http://www.dodgerdivorce.com and welcomes feedback via Twitter (

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