Rob Manfred Denies A Monmouth Student's Request To Overturn Armando Galarraga’s Nearly Perfect Game
(Credit to the great Cody Stavenhagen, who does a fantastic job covering the Tigers for The Athletic)
This is very unsurprising. The gesture is genuine. It's been 12 years since Armando Galarraga threw baseball's only perfectly imperfect game, and Detroit sports fans still feel the pain. Jim Joyce remains one of the biggest villains in Detroit sports history, and I understand why. At the same time, I think that Major League Baseball has been the most prominent villain throughout this entire process partially because they were the only sport in the world in 2010 that didn't have any semblance of instant replay. It led to a situation in which Jim Joyce became one of the biggest villains in sports for a short time.
I think this whole "Slippery slope" argument when it comes to overturning certain plays is a bit nonsensical. I can't think of a single play in recent baseball history (by "recent," I mean in the 21st-century) that was as easy to overturn as Galarraga's perfect game. You have to erase one at-bat from major league history, and Brandon Inge's put out at third, and you have the perfect game that Armando deserved. It's a pretty quick fix. At the same time, as someone who vividly remembers that moment, I think that in my heart of hearts, this call will eventually gets overturned one day. Armando Galarraga's perfect game will be official. It won't happen with Rob Manfred as the commissioner, but I think it will happen. It's silly that it hasn't happened yet, but nothing surprises me about this current administration. Part of the holdup is that Armando Galarraga doesn't seem to care. We've had somebody write an 82-page document about why this call should be overturned, yet in every interview we see with this guy, he has such a great attitude about the whole situation.
This may surprise people, but I'm over this situation. Does Galarraga deserve a perfect game? Of course he does. He earned a perfect game 12 years ago, but I don't get angry over this anymore. Losing the ALCS in 2013 to the Red Sox? That keeps me up at night. Galarraga's perfect game? It isn't very pleasant, but I've moved on. The day of reckoning probably should've come already, and while it's still going to take more time, I'm confident that it will come eventually. Galarraga has deserved this moment for 12 years. He'll have to wait a little longer.