The Human Element in Baseball

Armando Galarraga was two outs from a perfect game (against the Indians no less), one that would put him in an elite class of baseball pitchers.  On a bang-bang play, a ground ball to first base with the pitcher covering, the runner was called safe when replays clearly show that he was out (by at least a step).  Baseball umpires get that play right 99.9% of the time.  Jim Joyce, the first base umpire blew the call.  As a baseball player and a student of the game, I was fascinated with the post-mortem of this night.  Three "right calls" were made after the game.

1.  Jim Joyce is absolutely a gutsy class guy.  See his post game interview.  He did not dodge it.  He did not make excuses.  He didn't lie.  He admitted point blank in sometimes graphic terms that he blew the call.  He didn't have a bad angle on the play.  He didn't have the lights in his eyes.  He felt horrible for the young Galarraga.

2.  Galarraga is an absolutely classy young man.  He didn't blame Joyce.  He in essence shrugged his shoulders and said hey we are human, we make mistakes.  Where most young athletes constantly play the blame game - he did not.  His empathy for the umpire showed in the meeting in tonight's game.  Armando, I'm your fan (by the way you Tigers fans who booed, shame on you).

3.  MLB got it right when they said they would not reverse it.  That would have opened up Pandora's box to now all of the sudden reverse bad calls after the fact.  Instant replay is bad enough, but to now start trying to make up for every human mistake on the field.  When would it stop?  Could you reverse a ball and strike call because you have those little boxes that tell you if it is a ball or strike?  It is a human game - let humans make mistakes.  That is where life's lessons are learned.