I'm glad it wasn't me...

By now everyone who follows even the slightest amount of baseball knows about the call that Jim Joyce missed on June 2nd that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Having umpired for 26 years, I've had many of my friends ask me in the last 36 hours about the call and what can be done to (a) fix the missed call and (b) make sure it doesn't happen again. I've read countless blogs and posts and listened to several respected national sports commentators give their opinions, most of which lean towards reversing the call and awarding Galarraga his perfect game.

From a purely statistical perspective, it makes sense and would certainly "feel good" to reverse the call. After all, it would not change the outcome of the game and it would right what was clearly a botched call. At first, I thought that was the best way to handle the situation, but I now have changed my mind and believe the changing the call would do more harm than good.

I know, those of you who want the call changed are screaming, "How can changing it be bad?!?" Well, the answer is simple. It's because changing the call would undermine the integrity shown in the past 36 hours by Joyce, Galarraga and the Tigers organization. Jim Joyce could have easily issued a statement saying that he either stood by his call, or that he realized he missed it, but that it's part of the game. But he didn't. He stood up like a man, admitted his mistake, sought out Galarraga and apologized to him with great humility and then apologized basically to the rest of the baseball world (which includes the casual fan like you and me, by the way). Galarraga accepted the apology and neither he nor the Tigers are going to ask for the call to be reversed. Umpires miss calls. I've done it, and trust me, nobody feels worse than the umpire when you know you've blown a call that you can't change. I'm just thankful I never blew a call in such a big situation.

If the call is changed, then I feel that it cheapens the moment we have witnessed over the past two days. We have always known that there is a human element in sports officiating, and until players and management in those sports allow technology to remove some of that human element, mistakes will be made. If MLB wants to change their replay policy as a result of this call, then so be it. I'll be their biggest proponent, if they do it correctly. But not this call. Let's face it: changing this call would make us all feel good, nothing more. If this call had been blown in the fifth or sixth inning, there would not be nearly the same outcry about having it overturned. Why not? Is the 15th or 18th out any less important than the 27th out in a perfect game? Of course not.

If you change this call, which had no bearing on the outcome of the game, why not go back and change calls that DID affect the outcome of the game? Anyone care to guess how many people in Cardinal Nation would scream bloody murder if this call was changed, but the Dinkinger call in the '85 World Series was allowed to stand? After all, that call only changed the WINNER of the World Series, not just an individual accomplishment. So I say, let this call stand. It will make Joyce, already a very, very good umpire even better. It reminds us that everyone is human, and that forgiveness is easiest when one admits their mistakes and accepts the consequences.

Now let's talk about how to fix this moving forward. The technology certainly exists to allow the reversal of calls that are obviously wrong. The issue is how to do so without affecting the integrity of the game. My personal opinion is that replay could be used in one of two ways for calls other than balls and strikes challenges.

One way would be to give each manager one or two challenges per game for a play at a base or maybe a catch/no catch situation. The umpires would then follow the same procedures they currently use for instant replay. But if you used this method, how would you "penalize" the manager if he's wrong? In the NFL, the team loses a timeout if their challenge is unsuccessful. What similar penalty could you impose in MLB? If you charged an out (for a failed challenge by the offense) or put a runner on base (for the defense), you have potentially changed the integrity of the game. Some (me included) have advocated letting the opposing team choose a bench player to be scratched for the rest of the game after a failed challenge. But that could be very bad too. Could you imagine the Yankees losing a challenge and then having the Red Sox scratch Mariano Rivera in the 8th inning of game 7 of the ALCS?

Maybe a better way is to have a replay official in the press box similar to how college football handles reviews. Let the replay official take a look, then signal the crew chief if a further review is warranted. Many of you will find this hard to believe, but for the vast majority of games, replay would never be used. MLB umpires make very few mistakes, save balls and strikes. Forget about the "neighborhood" force out play at second base; that will always be called that way, and while that is a blog for another day, the primary reason is safety. As I was taught in many umpiring schools, "if he's gonna be out, he's gonna be out."

One other key component in any proposed replay change will be the stance of the players. Note that you haven't heard an outcry from the players about adding replay as a result of this call. In fact, the vast majority of players have said that the human element is part of the game. The players union would have to approve any change, and they are about as immovable as the US Government. The strike zone is the perfect example. The rule book definition of a strike and what is called in MLB are two completely separate things. But you don't hear the players complaining about the current strike zone as it is called. So why doesn't MLB change the rule book definition to match what is currently being called? The players union. Plain and simple.

The bottom line is that I hope that replay will be expanded to allow blatently missed calls to be changed, as long as a method that doesn't change the integrity of the game can be found. But the call made by Jim Joyce needs to stand.