The Unperfect Game Redux

As I wrote last night immediately following the game, I was angry. Me and millions of others, too, no doubt.

As history making as the blown call will be, I think I am almost as surprised by the events reported after the game. It appears that the umpire who blew the call was genuinely upset once he saw the replays. He agreed, on the record, that he got it wrong. He even asked permission of the team to talk to the pitcher, Gallaraga, which he did and apologized to him for his mistake.

I don't think I can ever remember a major league umpire admitting a mistake, much less apologizing to the player affected by it.

As I wrote last night, the umpire—his last name is Joyce—will go down in history as the man who stole the perfect game. One hopes that history will also recall that he was a big enough man to admit the error immediately and to appear to the reporters to be distraught about it.

Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, suggested that perhaps the league should look at the play and reverse the call. The effect would be to reinstate the perfect game. His point is that it would not affect the outcome of the game, but would be the right thing to do. It would mean that the 28th and next batter, Trevor Crowe, who grounded out, would lose his official at bat, which I suspect he would be most happy to pretend never happened. However, Jason Donald, who was called safe at first was credited with a hit, and that would be turned into an out; statistically he would be hurt by the reversal since it would lower his batting average as opposed to it being raised by the call.

I’m not sure how I feel about this suggestion. Part of me says the league should do it. Gallaraga earned it and deserves it. Donald should be out and not have credit for a hit he didn't earn. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of rewriting history. As the saying goes, what is done is done.

No matter what, there are going to be asterisks all over this game.