Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Not Quite Perfect

Weird. Nice effort of what someone called a 28 out Perfect Game. But it also evoked memories of memories of Don Denkinger in the 1985 World Series.

From the Cleveland Indians TV broadcast tonight on SportsTime Ohio
...And now he is facing Jason Donald. The only man who stands between Galarraga and Major League Baseball history...
oh if they only knew what would happen 3 pitches later.

The Detroit broadcaster on Fox Sports Detroit actually said "he's out" before having to correct himself (and having to correct himself many times over).

Jim Joyce blew the call. I've heard for many years that umpires listen for the ball in the glove at first while looking for the runner's foot on the bag. The last play was a soft toss to first, and maybe there wasn't any sound to go by. It was caught (by the pitcher covering) in the top webbing of his glove. That's no excuse. Maybe it's something for Major League Baseball and the umpires to consider fixing how umpires make calls like this. Too many blown calls in MLB this year. But I don't think replay should be in the future.

Both teams' broadcasters were in agreement that Jim Joyce blew the call, had replays, and were just down. You could hear it in the Tigers broadcasters. The Cleveland broadcasters did correctly predict the scene after the game. For me, I've never seen a bench-clearing argument with an umpire like what happened after the Tigers game with the near perfect game. Detroit's broadcasters were getting on the Tigers for the scene. I can't blame them. Jim Leyland should have argued until he got tossed defending his pitcher after the play.

Just imagine if this had been a Mets pitcher...


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