Armando Galarraga And The Impossibility Of Perfection

“I told him, ‘Nobody’s perfect.’ What am I going to say?”
–Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga discusses his conversation with umpire Jim Joyce, whose botched call on the final out of last night’s game against the Cleveland Indians robbed Galarraga of what would have been the 21st perfect game in baseball history. Joyce apologized profusely, Galarraga and his teammates and manager reacted with a remarkable degree of equanimity; apart from the fact that there was a terrible call that deprived a man of the greatest achievement any pitcher can hope to attain, everyone involved reacted rather well. You can almost see the bright side of it for Galarraga: 20 pitchers have perfect games; only one has “the perfect game that wasn’t.” He’s got his own place in history now. Besides, the way things are going this season there will probably be another perfect game pitched at some point next week. It might even come from Galarraga. God knows the guy’s earned it.