Bud Selig's Comments on Jim Joyce's Blown Call

So, as expected, Bud Selig quickly came out with comments in regard to Joyce's blown call.

Unshockingly, Selig said he would not reverse the call, which I think is a good idea because (as Kurkjian notes in that video), it would open up a can of worms in regard to baseball. While some seem to be worried that past umpire mistakes would have to be re-examined and overturned if Selig overturned this call, I thinkt he main problem would be the future. I can almost guarantee that in the future, had Selig overturned the call, there would have been a situation in which something happens that causes a team or player to demand another umpiring decision to be overturned. The problem is, in most cases, an umpire call is not even easy to talk about overturning because you can't reply certain parts of the game. While it's true that the blown call was on the very last out of the game, I still feel it would have created problems in the future in regard to people demanding the commissioner over turn umpire calls.

The other important thing that Selig said is that he is going to analyze umpiring and figur eout what they can do to increase accuracy. In other words, he's considering implementing further instant replay reviews. I'm glad to see that he is considering this, the "Special Committee" he appointed during the off-season has also apparently been throwing the idea around. I think it's important that they get it right if they do implement it, and limit the number of reviews that a manager can ask for, otherwise the system would be abused. It would even kind of make sense if it were the umpires themselves who decided when to use the instant replay review, such as during an extremely close play like the one that occurred during Galarraga's 1-hitter.

Should be interesting to see what happens with instant replay, I have a pretty strong feeling that it will probably be implemented by the 2011 season.

Three Perfect Games in One Season...Or Not..

So, tonight Armando Galarraga threw a perfect game, but didn't get credit for it because of a botched umpire call in the 9th inning. That link also has a video, if you want to see how close (or not close, in this case) the play was for the umpire to make a mistake.

It's kind of shocking that that would happen, and it's going to create even more scrutiny for Major League Baseball umpires, something that I know increased following the series of botched calls during the playoffs last year. It's probably also going to lead to an increase in talks about expanding replays for the game.

One of the more shocking things about this botched call is how level-headed Galarraga and his team-mates have been about it. Galarraga and Austin Jackson both stated that they understand that Jim Joyce is human and that he is going ot make mistakes. Many a pitcher would have gone crazy the moment they saw the umpire call the runner safe. Definitely have to give credit to the young Galarraga for keeping his composure.

It should be interesting to see what the MLB says about this, but you can bet that this missed call will probably go down as the worst in history in any sport, simply because a Perfect Game is one of the rarest things in baseball (although they seem to grow on trees lately..), and this umpire's call kept it from happening.