It is a shame that Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga was not able to enter the record books for one of baseball's rarest feats. But I can only recall the names of a couple of those pitchers who recorded a perfect game. However, I will always remember how Armando Galarraga handled the blown call.
To err is human. But to immediately admit a mistake, especially one of such historic meaning, is almost against human nature. So I will always remember American League umpire Jim Joyce for how he handled his mistake.
To those who say the call should be over turned, I say don't change a thing, do not rewrite history.
This was the ultimate teaching moment. This is the ultimate meaning of sportsmanship. This is one of the greatest moments in any sport, ever.
This was a perfect game.
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All in all, both were great examples of sportsmanship...
I agree don't change the call, but the scoring should be changed to an error (on Galarraga) instead of a hit.
Due to the bad call the only possible scoring is hit or E-1. If the Cabrara's throw was late, then the play should be scored a hit. If the throw was on time than the play must be scored an error on Galarraga under rule 10-12(a) "The official scorer shall charge an error against any fielder: ... (3) when such fielder catches a thrown ball or a ground ball in time to put out the batter-runner and fails to tag first base or the batter-runner". Rule 2.00 says "A TAG is the action of a fielder in touching a base with his body while holding the ball securely and firmly in his hand or glove ... ". We all know from the replay that Galarraga did this, but the call was safe so that is immaterial.
The error rule exists to prevent bad play by one fielder from impacting the fielding statistics of other players as well as batting and pitching statistics. Calling the play an error unjustly impacts Galarraga's fielding stats, but calling it a hit would unjustly impact the stats of Donald, who should not get credit for the hit, Cabarra, who deserves credit for a particularly difficult assist, as well as Galarraga who deserves a perfect game he won't get, but can get credit for a no-hitter and not have other stats impacted by what obviously was not a hit.