Selig blows the call worse than umpire on ‘imperfect’ game
Umpire Jim Joyce was still in tears Thursday when Detroit's Armando Galarraga and Cleveland coach Tim Tolman brought out the lineup cards. (Detroit Free Press)
Let’s start with this: Umpires and referees make mistakes all the time that affect the outcomes of games, even championships.
We saw it when Don Denkinger blew a call at first base in the 1985 World Series. We saw it when Colorado scored a touchdown on its “fifth down” of a game against Missouri in 1990, leading to a split the national championship that season with Georgia Tech. We saw it when the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup finals over Buffalo on a triple overtime goal by Brett Hull (who was standing in the goal crease at the time, a goal that similarly was disallowed all during that season).
Unfortunately, it’s just not feasible to reverse bad calls that impact who wins and who loses.
Never count on this man to do the right thing.
But what happened Wednesday night is different. An umpire, Jim Joyce, blew a call at first base that prevented Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga from throwing a perfect game against Cleveland. That is not in dispute. This is one case where commissioner Bud Selig could have done the right thing and reversed a mistake. He could have done this without affecting the outcome of the game because the Tigers were going to win anyway.
We’re talking about one out. Selig can’t change one out?
Or was it that important for the Indians’ Jason Donald — who has spent most of his five seasons in the minor leagues — to go 1-for-3 instead of 0-3? Because, Bud, dude, did you see the look on Donald’s face after the play? He was embarrassed himself about being called safe by Joyce.
Selig just blew the call. He blew the call worse than Joyce blew the call. Joyce made a spur-of-the-moment decision that he later admitted was wrong. Selig had a day to think about this. He could have changed the final out call and nobody — NOBODY — would have had a dispute.
Fact is, it probably would have given Jim Joyce, who was still in tears Thursday, some peace of mind.
Selig’s statement was accurate: “While the human element has always been an integral part of baseball, it is vital that mistakes on the field be addressed. Given last night’s call and other recent events, I will examine our umpiring system, the expanded use of instant replay and all other related features.”
But what he left out was a rational explanation as to why that single play could not have been overturned. The reason is obvious: There is none.
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187 comments Add your comment
DMac
June 4th, 2010
10:23 am
You may not believe this, but if I had been the base runner, I would have called myself out.
bvillebaron
June 4th, 2010
10:25 am
DMac:
Uh, I don’t believe it.
Pandora
June 4th, 2010
11:05 am
Jeff: What if the runner was safe, but had been called out? Would you change the call? What if Cleveland took advantage of the extra out and rallied to win the game? Would you still reverse the call? If the call is reversed should the pitcher’s accomplishment be accompanied by an “asterisk”? If the call can be reversed by Selig, how long does he have to exercise this judgment? Days, weeks, years? Should the next commissioner have the ability to correct this “travesty”?
South GA Dad
June 4th, 2010
12:42 pm
RIGHT ON JEFF!! I just got tee’d earlier reading Bradley’s nonsense but you are right on it. What I want to know is how Galarraga feels about Selig’s decision. Henoestly, baseball would be better off with my grandmother as commish. BTW do you know Selig’s email address, at least one for his office? I can’t find anything but a phone number and I want my message to him to be in written or typed form…
GROW A SET OR GET THE HELL OUT!
redd34
June 4th, 2010
1:26 pm
What a DUMB article by Jeff…. Selig got it right… Would u change a call if a player made an ERROR on the field that cost a team a WIN…. Umps are like the players on the FIELD they can make mistakes to. Give me a BREAK..
KenReitz
June 4th, 2010
1:27 pm
Kobe Bryant is the greatest NBA player ever.
KOBE VERSUS MJ
Kobe has won FOUR NBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
MJ HAS WON SIX NBA TITLES
Kobe has won 1 league MVP trophies
MJ has won six league MVP trophies
Kobe scored 81 points in an nba game against Toronto
Jordan scored 69 points in a playoff game against Cleveland.
Kobe has won one finals mvp
Jordan has won six finals mvps
Kobe HAS BEEN REFERRED TO AS THE “BEST CLOSER” IN THE GAME
Michael has been regarded as the greatest player in nba history.
Kobe has been ROBBED out of at least 3 MVP trophies.
Kobe Bryant will finish with the following statistics:
#1 scorer of all times passing Kareem Abdul Jabbar
most championships for a player named other than Bill Russell
most season MVP trophies (at leat eight)
most points by any Laker player
most prolific scorer of all times
most championships by any Laker player
Kobe Bryant will break Wilt Chamberlains 100 point single game record.
BobtheBlogger
June 4th, 2010
1:48 pm
Jeff,
This is such a point of contention between so many people, it would be very interesting to have a poll on this. I’ll bet it’s 3 to 1 in favor of reversing the call.
JuniorBridgeman
June 4th, 2010
1:59 pm
Its unfortunate that BUD SELIG IS SUCH A STUBBORN OLD MULE. Selig had a chance to do justice to baseball and decided to hold baseball hostage by being too proud to do the right thing. I head today that an Ohio man with the same name as umpire Joyce has gotten so many threatening calls that he had to disconnect his phone. Selig could saved everyone a lot of aggravation by just reversing the call, let history be made and make the fans happy as well as the umpires and players. Now this whole thing has been a big mess that could have easily been straightened out. Selig is someone who craves the spotlight and is an ego power hungry maniac.
bry22
June 4th, 2010
2:53 pm
Bud is a Dickhead!!!!!!!!
bvillebaron
June 4th, 2010
2:56 pm
KenReitz:
What do your Kobe comments have to do with the posted blog? Having said that, and without knowing how old you are, I am old enough to have actually seen the greatest NBA player ever play and that would be Wilt Chamberlain. Do yourself a favor and check out the number of all time records he still has. The NBA actually changed a number of rules to make it harder for Wilt to dominate the game unlike today where the rules have been changed to make it easier for players like MJ and Kobe to score (e.g. the 3 point shot, palming the ball, walking, etc.). I also think you are deluding yourself if you think Kobe will score more than 100 points in a game.
SG10
June 4th, 2010
2:58 pm
Jeff,
You said it very well and I agree with you. Only rational argument I have seen against this is that ‘may be the pitcher was helped by a marginal call, early in the game, that helped him get to this 9th inning 3rd out to begin with. Why not go through the entire tape and reverse those as well?’..
However, the biggest reason I agree with you here is that it will give peace of mind to so many people. Nobody is going to benefit by not reversing the call. This is an extraordinary situation requiring extraordinary action but we can never count on Selig to do the right thing, can we?
reason
June 4th, 2010
2:58 pm
Baseball is not like another other sport, in Football, Basketball or even soccer, are fast action sports and hard to keep up with, so replay can be and is applied to any of the three. Baseball is an in between sport, it can be fast or slow, but not so complicated as to blow a call as the umpired Joyce did to Galarraga.
I know umpires are human, anyway, some look human, but to blow a call as Joyce did, he would have to be asleep. Yes, replay can be used according to situation. Baseball fans can see that umpires are not only making bad call, they enjoyed making bad calls. They enjoyed kicking Bobby Cox out. Most are fat, and lazy and it’s time for some to called it quits. One can tell after a few innings, who they favor the most. The ones who get the shaft from all sports, are the fans.
bvillebaron
June 4th, 2010
3:35 pm
SG10:
With all due respect, the gulf oil spill, the problems with Iran, North Korea, etc. may well be “extraordinary situations”, but reversing or not reversing the blown call during Galarraga’s game is not.
SG10
June 4th, 2010
4:33 pm
bvillebaron:
I agree
but I thought we are talking about extraordinary situation in baseball and not life
Dave In Tampa
June 4th, 2010
7:10 pm
Bud Selig is the Worst call ever in Baseball!!! This guy has ruined a great game. Talk about of impeaching someone!
Dave In Tampa
June 4th, 2010
7:11 pm
Enter your comments here
hind tit
June 4th, 2010
9:48 pm
this is all baseball needs is something to make the game even longer. just think no more manager umpire fights how boring the grand ole game would be.
hind tit
June 4th, 2010
10:13 pm
they could look at the replay and see if the ball got stuck in his glove or if he could have thrown the ball a little harder then you could blame it on the fielder instead of the umpire. why would it be any different than football. the whole world see the replay and they still miss the call. it happens at least one time a game and it still ends up a judgment call even with the replay. do i get an amen.
Trey
June 4th, 2010
10:37 pm
I hope this team can pull out 10 straight. If not, at least it was a 9 straight winning streak. Very impressive.
Trey
June 4th, 2010
10:40 pm
What happened to Sonny?
Trey
June 4th, 2010
10:41 pm
Jeff how are you feeling about the Braves chances this year of being in contention? I know it is early, but improvement from last year?
Joshua
June 5th, 2010
1:52 am
Jeff Schultz doesn’t understand the Pandora’s box argument. I suspect there are many other things that Jeff Schultz doesn’t understand.
At first I wanted the call to be overturned because it seemed the right and fair thing to do. But after the shock of what had happened wore off and I began to apply reason to the situation, I realized what a terrible idea it was to overturn that call. It only requires a modicum of rational thought to understand the logic behind Mr. Selig’s argument. He deserves credit for making the difficult but correct decision.
Devin
June 5th, 2010
9:03 am
Jeff, Thanks for not conforming to the ways of this world and the negative media like Bradley. The ajc finally got rid of one negative in Terrence Moore. I always enjoy your articles but recently got tired of paying for the AJC due to the leftist negative “opinons” like Cynthia Tucker. Your thougts were the only ones I seemed to enjoy. I’m off to subscribe to the Marietta journal but will keep checking your stuff for free on line. At least the MDJ knows that even Lacrosse has exploded in Metro Atlanta and covers the sports and local interest that are more popular than what Bradley thinks.
Trey
June 5th, 2010
1:54 pm
can Japan be said on here?
Max
June 5th, 2010
3:28 pm
The Sorry State Of Affairs Of Baseball..Check This Out..
Last Time I Looked..The NL Had Won 404 Games League Wide!
They LOST 402 Games..This Puts Them On The Plus Side By 2 Games!!
By The Same Token, The AL Won 351 Games And LOST 353 Games!
Ant It Wonderful..They Are In The Hole 2 Games!!
Just Something To Mull Over Before You Get Too Excited By Any Team!!
Eli
June 5th, 2010
6:06 pm
Jeff
Logical- I have to disagree with you on this one. The call was made, the umpires are part of the game. If good ole Bud changes this call, there will be an outcry (small, but mighty, thanks to ESPN) to go back into the vault and look at every 1 hitter ever played. On a slow sports day, ESPN will bring up the fact that…
Emotion- It sucks, but just like a game when you were a kid, it’s still just a game. I got a feeling Gallarraga is young enough to get over it. You never know, it might inspire him to be the next Nolan Ryan.
MitchC
June 5th, 2010
9:00 pm
Jesse, to answer your question: Yes, I would want the call reversed if the runner had been safe and the ump called him out.
The key thing to me is to get the correct call, whatever it is. I’m not arguing in favor of giving the pitcher a no hitter for no reason. Bottom line, he either pitches a no hitter, or he doesn’t. If baseball allowed replays to be taken into account, and the runner had been safe, and incorrectly called out, then yes, reverse it.
wawel78
June 5th, 2010
9:33 pm
so Mitch, I assume you want them to go back and reverse every call? That’s the fairest thing to do.
That's just 2 bad.
June 5th, 2010
10:29 pm
This is it-
Robot umps.
Robot players.
Robot fans.
Robot sports writers.
That's just 2 bad.
June 5th, 2010
10:44 pm
Now, why in the world would selig want to reverse the call? It would take that single away from Jason Donald. Heck, he might even come to within one hit from breaking Ichiro Suzuki’s 262 single-season hits record set in 2004. We wouldn’t want to upset any chance Jason Donald may have at this feat, would we?
wawel78
June 5th, 2010
11:32 pm
why don’t we just start giving hits out at the end of games for hard hit balls?
All aboard the Hey-Train
June 6th, 2010
9:54 am
Selig doesn’t want to open that can of worms. Tim Kurkjian-whose oppinion on baseball matters I value greatly-mention that this would be a precedent that MLB can deal with later. If he reversed the call, people would go back and look, “Well maybe we should give St. Louis another championship!” and that isn’t something that needs to be added onto baseball’s plate right now.
Jordan Schafer believes he’ll work his way back to Braves | Jeff Schultz
June 6th, 2010
1:51 pm
[...] ♦ Selig blows the call worse than umpire on ‘imperfect’ game [...]
Home of the Braves
June 6th, 2010
11:20 pm
Jeff,
What if Gallaraga had thrown a 3-2 strike 3 to the 27th batter mid-thigh-high, right down the center of the plate and it had been called a ball. Would you have wanted Selig to reverse the ball call?
Home of the Braves
June 6th, 2010
11:25 pm
Also, is your point that Gallaraga “deserved” a perfect game? Is that why you believe it should be reversed? Because you could very easily make the argument that every pitcher who throws a would-be perfect game that gets ruined by an error (committed by anyone besides themselves, i guess) should be credited with a perfect game.
Gallaraga’s game was perfect except for an error on the final play. If Cabrera makes the error on the throw, nobody says a word about Selig. But since the error was made by Joyce, people got upset. Well the first base ump is involved in just as many plays in the field as the first baseman – actually more than twice as many when you consider both teams and balls hit down the right field line – so his mistakes are a part of the game just like anyone else’s.
dwaynerice
June 9th, 2010
3:35 pm
jesse james
June 3rd, 2010
10:07 pm
These people that want the call reversed, would you reverse the call had the runner been really safe and the umpire called him out?
Absolutely. Get it right. I don’t want to win or lose, have an individual achievement or not, or a call that is erroneous. If modern technology has it that a person can be saved through a medical procedure/surgery, is it wrong for the surgeon or medicine to say, “well, we can’t reverse (or go back in time) to save patients whose lives were lost without benefit of the new technique, so it would be unfair to them and their memory for us to use this technology now to save this person or individuals today.” Ridiculous. Just keep compounding mistakes and take generations to do the utmost to see that correct or as close with CERTAINTY that calls are correct. No, I’m not for replay on balls and strikes.
Gary
June 9th, 2010
10:02 pm
Jeff
What if the bad call was the second out of the game?