Perfection

Only 20 pitchers over more than a century have pitched a perfect game in Major League Baseball.  That's 27 batters up and 27 batters down, and no walks or errors.  My boys and I enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime experience in 1998 at Yankee Stadium, when David Wells blanked the Twins 4 -0.  It was magical, even though Wells said he achieved the feat with a "raging, skull-rattling hangover."

Which makes it all the more disappointing that the Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga's bid to be the 21st pitcher of a perfect game was denied on the final out of the game after a blown call by the first base umpire, Jim Joyce.



It was the top story on ESPN's SportsCenter yesterday and nearly 200,000 readers from all 50 states voted to overturn the blown call and award a perfect game.

Even more admirable is the writing of The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, who captured the deeper lesson.

"It's everything that follows that blunder that makes the story great.  When Galarraga hears the call, he looks puzzled, surprised. But he's composed and calm, and he smiles, as if accepting fate. Others run to the ump and begin to yell, but Galarraga just walks back to the mound to finish the job. Which he does, striking out the next batter. The game is over.

"The umpire, Jim Joyce, 54, left the field and watches the videotape. He saw that he'd made a mistake and took immediate responsibility. He went straight to the clubhouse where he personally apologized to Galarraga. Then he told the press, 'I just cost the kid a perfect game.' He said, 'I thought [Donald] beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw until I saw the replay. It was the biggest call of my career.'

"Galarraga told reporters he felt worse for Joyce than he felt for himself. At first, reacting to the game in the clubhouse, he'd criticized Joyce. But after Joyce apologized, Galarraga said, 'You don't see an umpire after the game come out and say, 'Hey, let me tell you I'm sorry.' He said, 'He felt really bad.' He noted Joyce had come straight over as soon as he knew he'd made the wrong call.

 "What was sweet and surprising was that all the principals in the story comported themselves as fully formed adults, with patience, grace and dignity. And in doing so, Galarraga and Joyce showed kids How to Do It.

"A lot of adults don't teach kids this now, because the adults themselves don't know how to do it. There's a mentoring gap, an instruction gap in our country. We don't put forward a template because we don't know the template. So everyone imitates TV, where victors dance in the end zone, where winners shoot their arms in the air and distort their face and yell "Whoooaahhh," and where victims of an injustice scream, cry, say bitter things, and beat the ground with their fists. Everyone has come to believe this is authentic. It is authentically babyish. Everyone thinks it's honest. It's honestly undignified, self-indulgent, weak and embarrassing.

"Galarraga and Joyce couldn't have known it when they went to work Wednesday, but they were going to show children in an unforgettable way that a victim of injustice can react with compassion, and a person who makes a mistake can admit and declare it. Joyce especially was a relief, not spinning or digging in his heels. I wish he hadn't sworn. Nobody's perfect.

"Thursday afternoon the Tigers met the Indians again in Comerica Park. Armando Galarraga got a standing ovation. In a small masterpiece of public relations, Detroit's own General Motors gave him a brand new red Corvette. Galarraga brought out the lineup card and gave it to the umpire—Jim Joyce, who had been offered the day off but chose to work.

"Fans came with signs that said, 'It was perfect.' It was."