I Just Wrote Bud Selig

[jonzr]

To tell him what a douche he is.  I mean, WTFF?  If ever there was a situation that was designed to be reversed, overturned, rewritten, the botched call in the perfect-game-that-wasn't is IT!

Grow a fucking pair and do the right thing you colossal gash.  YOU SUCK, YOU HAVE ALWAYS SUCKED.  Here's a chance to suck just a little less and what do you do, Bud?  You suck yet again. 

Please, step in front of a speeding bus today.

[Merman1983]

Yeah I agree. I realize he's concerned about creating a dangerous precedent but there were 2 fucking outs in the ninth and the blown call was the final out. It's not like it happened in the 3rd inning or something.

They already have replay for homeruns, give the manager 2 challenges or something. They say it will increase the length of games, but so does the umpire conferences, the batters stepping out of the box after every pitch to adjust their wangs, the pitchers stepping off after every pitch to adjust their hats, the 85 commercials between innings, etc etc.

I'm on board with him changing the game. The pitcher did record 28 outs after all.

[aj_law]

I don't think he should change the outcome.  A blown call is a blown call.  The game's over.  EOS.  Plus, if I'm Galarraga, I don't want it after the fact.  Totally detracts from the moment, IMO.

Remember the Sandy Eggo game where the refs blew the call late on that Troy recovery for a TD that was called back?  The league admitted a mistake was made, but they didn't go back and change the score.  Same in this sitch.  It is what it is.

Props to the Tiger organization for the way they've handled this issue.  MAD props to Galarraga for how he's handled it.  And, props to Joyce for owning up to his mistake and not whining/making excuses.  The tears were a nice touch too.

FWIW, I agree with Merman that each team should have 2 or 3 challenges per game.  Replay wouldn't have solved this problem because they've always maintained that it would never be implemented for 1st base outs.  Give 'em a flag that they gotta throw before the next pitch is made or somethin'.  Decision comes from the booth within 60 seconds.  At most, it adds maybe 5 minutes to a game.  Big deal.

Would be cool if they went with that approach with a Caesar flare.  Have an ump up in the broadcast booth that reviews the call on instant replay.  If he agrees, thumbs up.  If he disagrees, thumbs down.

[Finnegans Wake]

Agree with aj on this one.  Reality sux, tis what it is.

[jonzr]

Fact is though, bb changes stats after the fact ALL THE TIME.  They turn errors into hits.  What's the diff?  We're not talking about a run-of-the-mill call.  It was the 27th out of a perfect game.  He should change it before that poor ump kills himself.

[jonzr]

Armando Galarraga's perfect game is stolen by Jim Joyce, which of course makes Hitler very upset.

[Finnegans Wake]

I just sent a letter to Roger Goodell demanding he reverse this egregious decision.

NOW LET'S TALK BASEBALL!!!!!!!!!!!

[msdmnr2002]

Agreed what's done is done, can't go back and change it.  I thought about the error/hit changes too, but that doesn't change the number of outs recorded or score.  The next at bat is the same.  In this case, you have an extra out.

And the precedent is set.  What if the bad call is with 1 out in the 9th?  Or 2 outs in the 8th?  Or the third inning?

They need to expand replay to include this.  the challenge idea is a good one.  But you can't retroactively change things.  Or they could use replay to overturn the Jeffrey Mayer interference/homerun call and redo that whole series.

[jonzr]

And the precedent is set.

I wouldn't be too worried about precedents.  Let's say they have to do a replay for the 27th out of every perfect game for the next 100 years.  From what we've seen so far, they'd be looking at no more than 20 calls out of thousands and thousands of games.

What if the bad call is with 1 out in the 9th?  Or 2 outs in the 8th?  Or the third inning?

But it wasn't, it wasn't and it wasn't.  All that changes in this instance is the 27th batter doesn't get a hit and the 28th batter doesn't get an at bat for which he is out.  That's it.  If ever there was a perfect set of conditions for a call to be changed, this is it.  The score doesn't change, the outcome doesn't change, etc.  Really, one could not devise a better situation for a reversal.

[jonzr]

And let's make no mistake here.  I wouldn't be talking about this if it were a bang-bang call that could have gone either way but which could only be determined to be wrong by freezing the frame and getting out a magnifying glass.  Or if it were in the middle of the game.

This was obvious in real time, the runner was a step away.  The call was horrific and one wonders if the umpire wasn't affected by the pressure of having to make that call.  It was a mistake that can be corrected.  Who cares if there's an asterisk?  You think the guy who got a hit out of it won't have an asterisk?  I'm thinking that pitcher will take a reversal because, in his mind, he threw a perfect game.  He knows it, you know it, Bud Selig knows it but for some fucking stick-up-his-arse reason won't acknowledge it.  I bet the ump would give a months pay to have that call back.  Unless he's a media whore who did it on purpose, but that's not the impression I get of the guy.