Sure he could have done more earlier, but everyone was turning a blind eye, including the fans (myself included) who didn’t seem to think anything was fishy when players started routinely breaking longstanding records. There’s plenty of blame on Selig there, but the league was making cash hand over fist and nobody - not the fans, sportswriters, players, or owners - seemed to care, so should he? Bill Simmons recently mentioned an old article talking about Luis Gonzalez (who went from averaging 27 hrs over a 3 year span to hitting 57 in '01) raving about how opening up his stance made all the difference. People were very naive back then, and to put it all on Selig isn’t really fair.
Feel free to provide more details later. Chances are it will be a few days before I can respond. I, too need to get more work done. And then there is beer to be had this evening. Somethings are just more important than baseball, after all.
Again, I understand your arguments, and if you prefer I’ll address your comments below directly, but it seems to boil down to the fact that you think some travesty has occurred. I disagree. I don’t see it as unfair, inhumane nor indecent. Despite your claims otherwise, he DIDN’T pitch a perfect game. You can check the box score if you don’t believe me.
Cite? I never heard anything about this until well after the fact. Maybe some baseball insiders knew, but it was hardly common knowledge and it certainly wasn’t getting any press.
Mod note: This; not cool.
Take it to the pit, if you have to.
Gukumatz,
Game Room Moderator
I punch you in the nose. There are no witnesses.
You call the cops, but the cop that shows up is my brother, and he refuses to file a police report. He tells you that if you make an issue out of it, he’ll throw YOU in jail.
Therefore, despite the blood running down your face, I didn’t punch you in the nose…right?
This is exactly what you’re saying with regard to Galarraga’s perfect game.
By the way, something occurred to me over the weekend.
What is the universal statement that is made when umpires blow calls?
Wait for it…
"Umpires are human, after all."
So umpires can be human, but the Commissioner of Major League Baseball cannot be.
He has to be an automaton who cannot, under ANY possible circumstance, no matter how rare, look at all the facts of this case and reach a human decision.
In any event the steroid issue should have been visited, in force, well before Selig was commissioner. They should have been working on it in the late 80s.
According to whatever official government body that decides these things, no, you didn’t punch me. I can stand before a judge and plead my case, but once that judge says it didn’t happen, officially it didn’t happen.
This is nothing new. How often do you hear the phrase “He was robbed!”? You are making a good case for instant replay, but none for why, in this situation, with today’s rules, something that has never, ever been done before needs to be done now.
What happened to Galarraga is wrong. No one is arguing against that. But there are reasonable, humane, decent people who think it would be a bigger travesty for Selig to interfere with the game on this level. It.just.wouldn’t.end.
Of course, the difference between my analogy and the Galarraga case is that thousands of witnesses at the game, and millions more TV viewers, have seen incontrovertible evidence that something DID happen – in the real world, Donald was safe, despite being called out.
There is not a soul on planet Earth who believes that Donald really was safe…and this includes the person whose opinion counts the most…Jim Joyce.
And to continue the real-world analogy, it is possible for witnesses to recant testimony they have given earlier.
I made this case in a previous post, when I explained why I believe such a ruling would be “in the best interests of baseball.”
I also said that I hold in disdain anyone who gives as a sole or primary reason for inaction “But we’ve never done this before!”
I haven’t characterized the people who see things differently from me to be anything other than reasonable, humane, decent folks with whom I disagree.
I.just.don’t.believe.it.
I think the “slippery slope” argument is the big, scary monster that some folks are recoiling from instinctively without bothering to see if it has any substance to it.
Let’s again look at why this situation is different from virtually any situation that might come about in the future that would call for a similar ruling:
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This is obvious…it comes in a perfect game, and there have only been 20 of these in the history of baseball. This makes the odds of this baseline circumstance recurring very small.
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It comes on the 27th out of the game, which I’ve argued (in vain, apparently, for some folks who can’t grasp it) makes it different from any other play that could possibly occur. If a dispute arises at any other time, and a ruling is changed after the fact, then the only fair thing to do would be to replay the game from that point forward (as was done with the Brett pine tar incident). However, if an incorrect safe call on the potential 27th out of the game is reversed and called an out, there is nothing left to replay. The game is over. I personally would tread much more carefully if it was a matter of a play made earlier in the game being reversed, necessitating a replay from that point forward.
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Perhaps the most crucial point of all: a reversal in this case has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the game. The score does not change. The teams’ respective won-loss records and places in the standings do not change. No advantage to one team or the other is conferred at the end of the season (as an Indians fan, I can only wish this could be the case!) The only thing that changes is a personal record – which just happens to be the rarest and most coveted record of personal accomplishment in all of baseball. (OK, two records, technically…Donald has one hit stripped from his…oh, the horror!)
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To repeat myself: the entire slippery slope argument is tantamount to saying “No one in Major League Baseball can ever possibly have the intelligence or fortitude to examine the facts in a future case and say ‘Sorry, but this just doesn’t cut it. It does not rise to the level of the Galarraga incident. Motion denied!’”
Come to think of it, this probably is in fact true…as long as the present commissioner remains in his position. “Fortitude” and “Selig” are not words that can be used in the same sentence.
As someone else put it, if in the future a bonehead call is made on the 27th out of a perfect game, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Or rather “if” – a very big “if.”
I am a casual baseball fan at best and even I was well aware of the rumors that those guys were on steroids. And from what I could see, it looked like there was a good chance that there was some truth to them. I remember thinking at the time “I wonder how they’ll handle these records if proof of their steroid use comes out.”
So I’m not sure why you never heard anything about it, but I think most of us did.
p.s. This casual baseball fan thinks that all in all, it would be better for the game if the call were reversed.
True, steroid use was a standing joke for many years. We fans all knew it, but we pretended not to see it or to care about it until Canseco rubbed it in everyone’s faces. Fans who profess to be shocked or indignant at the detailed revelations just don’t have any credibility at all.
I remember Canseco was being taunted with the chant of “ster…oids…ster…oids” 20 years ago.
In Boston, the chant was “Just say no!”. Jose would just smile and flex a bicep in response.
**DChord568 - **I have a longer response but it boils down the same thing. I don’t think this rises to “in the best interest of baseball” and you think the rarity of the event and lack of repercussions make it the right thing to do. To each his own.
The record books will reflect this the way I think they should and baseball fanatics will get to debate it for the next 100 years, many of whom will undoubtedly agree with you. Everyone else will just rolls their eyes and say, “not this again.” The number of fans at the game will grow from 17,000 to probably 150,000 with all the people who end up claiming “I was there!” And baseball will go on…
Yes, we’ve both made our cases and are destined to disagree. It seems to me, though, that if this particular case fails to make “the best interest of baseball” cut for you, then no set of circumstances on earth possibly could compel you to believe a call should ever be changed.
As you’ve said to me, you’re entitled to that view if it pleases you. Me, I’d like to see a tiny shred of humanity introduced into this particular situation. That would please me…and I suspect, millions of other fans, too. I believe that baseball would not only survive this exception, but be the better for it.
Whether or not you like Selig as commissioner, it is ridiculous to say he’s spineless about this call. Everyone (virtually) seems to be arguing he should change the call. The spineless thing to do would be go along with everyone when you believe it’s the wrong thing to do. Now you can say you don’t agree with him, but spineless on this call - no not at all.
I understand what you’re saying up to a point, but an alternate view would be that it takes little spine to continue with “business as usual,” hiding behind blind obeisance to “rules” that tie your hands – as opposed to taking a bold and unprecedented move to deal with an extraordinary situation.
Millions of fans may be up in arms at Selig’s decision to not intervene in the Galarraga game. But no matter how loudly they shout, they have no power whatsoever to force his hand, and he knows it.
Selig’s only bosses are the club owners, and he enjoys a cozy relationship with most of them.
Good God!
Obviously, what I meant to write was “…in the real world, Donald was out, despite being called safe”!
Actually, no. The reality is: he was safe, because he was called safe. You’re only out or safe because the umpire calls it so. In the game of baseball, there is no other, hyper-reality. Reality in the game is the umpire’s call, right or wrong.
very well stated…