MLB History

Photo credit: TBO.com

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In Major League Baseball's search of their third perfect game in 23 days, Detroit's Armando Galarraga almost had the solution.

Running a perfect game (as in, no baserunners allowed) through eight full innings and the first two outs of the ninth, Galarraga almost created a remarkable Cinderella story for himself and a remarkable record for MLB.

Like any kid who grew up in Pacific Northwest in the 1990's, I idolized Ken Griffey JR.

He was everything that was right about the game of baseball. He had more fun than anybody on the field, always smiling with his signature backwards ball cap. His non-chalant swing seemed to launch homeruns that, to this day, still have yet to come down.

We felt like we grew up with him, like he was one of us. Just a big kid who loved to play a game. Our game. Baseball.

Where would we be without him? Would I be the die-hard fan that I am today?

When I was growing up in the '90s, there was one guy who every young baseball player wished he could be: Ken Griffey Jr.

He made baseball more exciting than anyone else in the game and kept my short attention span focused on a slow-paced sport.

I remember playing wiffle ball in my backyard, imitating Griffey's swing, even though I was right-handed—that smooth left-handed swing with the one-handed follow-through, the prettiest swing in the history of baseball.

Jim Joyce picked the worst possible time to be human.

Don Denkinger, move over—we’re seating a second at your table.

Armando Galarraga lost a perfect game but gained the respect of the entire country. Hell, the world.

At the precise moment when most mortal men would have collapsed or thrown a temper tantrum, Galarraga stood holding what should have been a baseball headed for the Hall of Fame this morning and smiled.

Smiled!!

While Jim Joyce's blown call that ruined Armando Galarraga's perfect game is becoming the poster child for expanding instant replay in Major League Baseball, it was hardly the only major blown call that day.

There were two other blown calls that, if not for the blown perfecto, probably would've been forgotten by now.

The first one happened in Toronto.

Everybody's seen it by now, how Armando Galarraga got stiffed out of a perfect game by one of the worst calls in MLB history.

We need to make sure this never happens again. By now, even baseball purists are calling for the expansion of instant replay.

That expansion could happen today if Major League Baseball and the World Umpires Association wanted to get it done. We already have the technology in place with replay implemented for "boundary calls" (i.e. whether or not a ball is a home run).

By now, you've heard about last night's game between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians where umpire Jim Joyce blew a call and cost Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. 

It was a routine call that Jim Joyce blew.  Everyone on the field knew the runner was out at first.  Everyone but Jim Joyce.

Since the Jeet man is chasing Gehrig's sacred numbers I thought I would compare the two...something Jeter himself would never admit doing.

They both had the basic same legnth careers, G-man 16 years and Jeet-man 15. Gehrig had three seasons of 15 or fewer games, two in the beginning and one at the end. Jeter had one season where he played 15 games...his first. Jeter will play for at least two more years.

Lou Gehrig: 2,164 games/8,001 AB/ 1888 runs/2,721 hits/ 534 doubles/163 triples/493 HR/1,995 RBI/1,508 walks/790 strikeouts/.340 AVG./.447 OBP

The face of Seattle Mariners has called it quits. Ken Griffey Jr., the once bright-eyed youngster with a million dollar smile and backward hat, ended his career Wednesday, June 2.

Junior was the biggest star of the 1990s and one of the few who did it all naturally, as far as we know. Not once has Griffey even been suspected of doing performance enhancing drugs.

An hour and forty-four minutes is the time it takes to go from beleaguered AAA pitcher, to a man who nearly flirted with perfection.

Let’s retract that.

An hour and forty-four minutes is the time it takes to go from beleaguered AAA pitcher, to a man who threw a perfect game.

And don’t let Jim Joyce try to tell you otherwise.

In fact, he won’t even tell you otherwise.