Talk about your bad beats.
 

Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga just had baseball immortality taken from him when first base umpire Jim Joyce blew a call at first base on the 27th and final out of the game. Just awful!

Disgraceful. How an ump can miss a call that badly in that situation is baffling.

unreal.

He ought to be fired for that!

Obviously he had to be aware of the situation. You would think that any bang/bang close play, the runner would be out just on merrit alone. But to blow a call on a play that really wasn't that close is absolutely disgraceful. He actually looked like he was originally calling him out and then ruled safe. I'm disgusted and I couldn't even care less about the Tigers.

Now I'm sure we are going to have listen to the instant replay discussions for baseball again for the umpteenth time.

i feel for that guy. that was his one chance at the record book.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8616789


There will be some form of instant replay in baseball after that atrocity.

If they add instant replay then they definitely need to put the pitchers on the clock.

They need to put pitchers on the clock regardless or make batters stay in the box. Or both.

I agree. That was terrible though. If it's even close, the guy has to be out. He was beaten by at least a half-step. Even the hitter looked like he didn't want the hit.

:tro::tro::tro:

hitter lost his one chance to be in the record books.

That is an abolute crime. If I were the ump, I would arrange for a police escort and the first flight out Detroit.

Yes, this game will deserve an asterisk. Absolutely horrendous call...

* First base umpire, dumb phuk -- pitcher threw perfect game, umpire blew call.

Is it unreal that two official (three unofficial) perfect games have been pitched in barely one month. Amazing!

Not sure if this video or the toddler smoking is worse...it's a toss up.

WTF was that? First time I've seen it... he was out by a full step!!! What a joke!

They miss these damn calls at 1st the most. Have no idea why, but they do this a lot.

I think crowd noise is a factor. It's nearly impossible to focus your eyes on the foot hitting the bag and the ball entering the glove at the same time. The umps tend to listen for the pop into the glove, the foot hitting the bag or both. With a pending perfect game, I'm sure even that small crowd was making some noise during the play last night. Without his listening crutch, the ump flat out blew it. Props to the ump for standing up and admitting his mistake. A few other umpires in the league could learn from his honesty and humility.

Baseball already allows instant replays for home runs, how difficult would it be to expand that to bang bang plays on the basepaths?

Here's hoping Bud Selig does not succumb to the pressure to change last night's call. The bad calls have been part of the game from it's inception. If you change one play, you have to go back and change the rest. The can of worms he'd open up would be immense. Just fix it moving forward and let last night be.

Agreed. Plus they have to keep the hitters in the batters box.

I think the bigger story of the game was 1 hour and 44 minutes. The Yankees and Red Sox are launching an investigation. That's 2 and a half innings for them! It was horrendous (the call). Very sad, it was the one thing the Indians could have accomplished this year....being perfected.

Also getting lost in the midst of this crime, is that catch by Austin Jackson in the 9th. Wow!

umpire shoulda been moving towards second base to get the angle...lazy....he should be fined.

MLB might be reviewing/overturning the call. While I'm sure baseball purists won't want to see that, it's the right thing to do, for both Galarraga and Joyce.

He couldn't, Miggy had to go to his right to get the ball. It was probably an easier play for the 2nd baseman who was behind Caberra. So there was really nowhere else Joyce could go without possibly interfering with the play.

as long as he stayed behing the basepath/play he woulda be fine to get angle

Obviously it would be the right thing to do. The kid would get into the books where he deserves to be. But I'm not sure how I feel about it. The whole blown call deal took the starch out of the moment that he and the Tigers deserved. Also, I do think it's a dangerous precedent that MLB would be setting.

I agree with this.

He was were he belonged. If for some reason he thought he was out of position he should have asked for help and then maybe the right call would have been made.

Cabrera should have let the second baseman field the ball and stayed on first and we wouldnt have this situation! He would have been out by a mile! (though a half step is still technically a mile in baseball)

Still doesnt change the fact that it was a blown call and was, for real, a perfect game... but I wonder why the 1st basemen had to field that ball.

Seriously, I did this for awhile..2-3 steps and he gets the whole panarama of play. He should've been willing to ask for help.

What about every other blow call? Changing this call would set a very dangerous precedent.

Let this play be the final push towards replay. Fix it going forward and move on.

What about them? No one's asking for sweeping reviews. How often are calls like this made? It's the only way to remedy the situation. Instating replay doesn't give Galarraga his perfect game and it doesn't help Joyce overcome this red mark.

They need to make yesterday right AND make some changes for the future as well.

What about the blown call in the bottom of the 8th that allowed Detroit to score 2 additional runs and make it 3-0 going to the 9th rather than 1-0??. Why is nobody talking about that?? Reversing the call would be the biggest travesty in the history of baseball. It would be disgraceful. You can't do it. Why not reverse the '85 Orta safe call and have a bunch of 60 year old men go replay the World Series from that point on...no?? A blown call is a blown call be it in the 2nd inning of a 12-0 game or with 2 outs in the 9th of a potential perfect game.

there's been 20 perfect games in MLB history. I'd say that makes it a little different.

It is truly a shame Joey, but changing the outcome after the fact does not change the call. It happened, Joyce owned up to it and Galarraga has accepted the apology with class.

I am by no means a purist, but I don't want the Commissioner of any league stepping in and changing the outcome of a game. Selig is a doddering old fool, the less he influences the game the better.

doesn't matter. There's been lots of blown calls. You simply can't reverse one single call based on when the blown call occurred. It is completely nonsensical in any debate on the subject. As others have said, use it to go to replay henceforth or accept it as a blown call as every other blown call in major league history has been accepted.

So now we want to add one with an asterisk?

I'm sure some people will want an asterisk, but why? Did you see the replay?

Yeah, it was a blown call and it sucks. I feel bad for the guy (and the ump). But that is baseball and hopefully this blown call leads to instant replay but I don't really like the idea of retroactively changing calls. Are they going to go back to every game in the MLB library where the pitcher had 26 straight outs before giving up a hit and check that every single one was truly a hit? Then what, do we have to look at no hitters next? Shutouts? Should anyone that hit .398 or .399 in a season have all their hits reviewed to see if there were any they were robbed of by a bad call and we should now give them a .400 season?