Baseball Needs Instant Replay To Save Itself From Its Own Stupidity

An amazing third perfect game in less than a month just happened! What an unbelievable story and an all-time statistical wonder. 3 perfect games in such a short time and only the 21st in the 100+ year history of the Major Leagues. Detroit's unknown pitcher Armando Galarraga got 27 straight men out to etch his name into the history books forever.

Wait... it doesn't count? I'm confused... the last runner was out, right?

No flippin way! You're telling me an umpire with a fu manchu made a terrible call to rob Galarraga of his perfect game on the final out?

Oh, well... we can fix it with instant replay right? I mean, that would be the right thing to do...

Wait! We can't have it replayed!?!?! WTF is going on here??? You mean this guy that just pitched a historic perfect game didn't really pitch a perfect game because Angry Fu Manchu Guy screwed up?

This, Ladies and Gentlemen is Human Error and baseball at its finest!

YEA!!

Seriously, this is one of... no, scratch that, the absolute worst umpiring/refereeing decision in the history of sports. Forget the Soviet Basketball team, forget the French judge, forget Phil Luckett, and forget Don Denkinger - Angry Fu Manchu Man (aka Jim Joyce) is now the pinnacle for terrible officiating. To rob someone of a perfect game, something that defines a career and a lifetime, on that call is a travesty, a call that was not even close, a call that saw the baserunner out by a full step. Even the runner (Cleveland's Jason Donald) thought he was out! Donald throws his hands on his head in disbelief after the play's end because he knew what had happened, too.

I hope this is what the baseball purists want. I hope that they are cheering their precious human error, and the sanctity of the game, and all of that other worthless crap now. I hope they were watching when a 28 year old Venezuelan had the night of his life taken away by human error and baseball tradition. It makes me sick. Because baseball is the most stubborn and inept of the major sports, this idiotic series of events happened. Simply put, baseball needs expansive instant replay tomorrow. Anything but balls and strikes (home runs, plays at bases, catch/no catches) should be up for review.

But, there was something more disturbing than even the stolen perfect game. It was the reaction of umpire Jim Joyce that was symbolic of how backwards and idiotic baseball has become. Joyce had the nerve, after making a historically bad call, to angrily go at Jim Leyland, and then engage in more histrionics with the Detroit bench after the game. Joyce makes his sport and his profession look all the more insane with his angry, childish reaction. You know what though - I don't totally blame Joyce. I blame the culture of baseball that wants its umpires to bump chests with managers instead of worrying about getting calls right. But hey, I guess that's part of the game too, right?

***Update: In fairness to Joyce, he seems remorseful after blowing the call. Maybe now he thinks his reaction was silly as well. I feel bad for Galrraga certainly, but Joyce too. He has no support from MLB and no instant replay to back him up. Instant replay affects the umps as much as the players and surely Joyce feels worse than anyone over the blown call.***

Bud Selig has one option - institute instant replay immediately, and take the drastic and unheard of step of giving Galarraga credit for the final out and the perfect game. As of now, the only person in the world that probably thinks it wasn't a perfect game is the record books. For Uncle Bud to ignore Garlarraga's stolen perfect game would be perhaps as damning a comment on his time as commissioner than ignoring the steroid era (of course he'll probably convene some phony panel that will do nothing until the smoke clears). The entire system is broken. We're told that human error and old men in uniforms arguing like children are "the way the game is supposed to be played." Well, if that's the way that baseball wants its sport to look, they can have it. Maybe it was Jim Joyce who described tonight's events best when he was arguing with Jim Leyland...

Tonight was bull$h*t.