On June 2, 2010, Armando Galarraga was robbed of something no Detroit Tigers pitcher has ever accomplished, throwing a perfect game.
But for those of you who either watched the play live or have seen the replay, you are well aware of the fact that Galarraga WAS perfect on that day, had it not been for a blown call by first-base umpire, Jim Joyce.
The blown call happened with two outs in the top of the ninth inning after Galarraga had retired 26-straight Cleveland Indians batters. The 27th man to the plate for the Indians on that day was Jason Donald, who slapped a Galarraga pitch towards first base, where Miguel Cabrera fielded the ball and tossed it to Galarraga, who was covering the bag.
Donald was clearly out, but Joyce called him safe, ruining Galarraga’s shot at glory.
Now, nearly 10 years later, Galarraga is asking Major League Baseball to overturn Joyce’s call and to award him what he deserves, a perfect game.
Galarraga recently spoke to Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic and said just that.
“I was like, what can I do to have a better finish to the story?” Galarraga says. “How can Major League Baseball give me the perfect game? Because it was perfect, right?”
“Why not?” Galarraga says. “Why wait for so long? I don’t want to die, and then they’ll be like, ‘You know what, he threw a perfect game.’”
Nation, do you think Major League Baseball should overturn Joyce’s blown call or is that just something that is part of the game.
Regardless of what happens, we all know exactly what Galarraga did on that day and it was absolute perfection.
