Opinion

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.

Are you hurting in the RBI category? Here are some reasonably available players that can help you out.

Delmon Young, OF, Minnesota Twins

Young had 12 RBI in the past 15 days while hitting .286 with five runs, a HR, and a SB. On the year he’s hitting .265 with 27 RBI, 20 runs, five HRs, and three SBs. Delmon is owned in 19.9 percent of ESPN and 41 percent of CBS leagues.

Clint Barmes, 2B, Colorado Rockies

Last night, as I was sitting at home, I saw the news come across that Ken Griffey Jr., one of the best players in the game, at least in this era, had retired.

I remembered watching his first years in Seattle and being so awestruck by not only his effortless left-handed swing but also by the speed he had in the outfield. He made highlight reel play after highlight reel play that will continue to be watched by the next generation of fans.

Not only that, but he survived the steroid era and proved that a player can be great without using illegal supplements to do it.

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!!

Commissioner Bud Selig is going to have a very interesting press conference.

Commissioner Selig needs to address two issues.

First, Commissioner Selig needs to commend Armando Galarraga for how he conducted himself last night. Galarraga should have been heralded this morning for the perfect game he threw against the Cleveland Indians last night.

Major League Baseball can't deny it — the game needs to expand its instant-replay system.

Last postseason, by itself, has proven that.

For instance, the Twins' Joe Mauer hit a blooper down the left-field line in Game Two of Minnesota's series against New York. The ball landed a good half foot inside the line, but, somehow, the foul-line umpire called it foul.

The call might have cost the Twins the game and a chance to make that series interesting.

Welcome to the Cleveland Indians Trading Post, a weekly segment meant to help my fellow Tribe fans sort out which of the few familiar faces left on the team won’t be around much longer.

This week’s potential trade bait is Jhonny Peralta.

The basics

Signed in 1999, Peralta made his MLB debut in 2003 but did not claim a permanent place on the Indians roster until 2005, when he replaced Omar Vizquel at shortstop.

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.

Bud Selig needs to ponder whether Armando Galarraga should be given his perfect game, which was taken from him by umpire Jim Joyce when he made a horrific call that ruled Jason Donald was safe at first base even though he was clearly out.

Yesterday was a day that had a little of everything, but the one thing most fans will remember will be umpire Jim Joyce making a safe call on a play that should have been the last play of a perfect game for Armando Galarraga.

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).