yesterday a perfect game was broken up on the last play because the ump was wrong. well, deemed to be wrong by most. i feel i must share some personal baseball thoughts!
the perfect game: i have always felt that though a perfect game is mostly due to good pitching it is NOT just the pitcher. at any time, a fielder could drop a ball, overthrow, etc. so even if the reasoning that the pitcher MEANT to throw for a groundball out is true, it could still go very wrong!! last night being a good example. give me 27 strikeouts, and i'll call it a perfect game for the pitcher. otherwise, it's the TEAM's accomplishment.
out?: how many times does a player get called out (or safe) at 1st base, regardless of where the ball is when his foot touches the base? often!! look carefully!! the umps get ONE angle, and i would say at least half the time, if not most of the time, they're guessing or looking at fielder's arm vs runner's leg, not actual ball and foot. in the big scheme of things, this is not a big deal because usually their guess is right - they get paid to do this, they mostly know what they're doing (the umps I mean).
instant replay: my verdict is still out on this. i thoroughly enjoy watching football coaches get all flustered and throw their flag/towel thing and then wait not very patiently for the replay dude to decide. there are specific rules in football replay about when and who can ask for it, etc. and if you're wrong, you get penalized! i think that in baseball, it could help. if there are good enough rules and consequences and all that. however, part of the fun of baseball is yelling at umps about bad calls!!! would it take away some of the aura? probably. and then there's the question of: what's changed in the game in the last 100 years, besides technology, that makes us think we need such a change?
so.... congrats to Armando Galarraga and the Detroit Tigers for their perfect game last night. may Armando always enjoy his *. :)
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