A Terrible Injustice...and how it can be corrected.

I don't know if anybody saw this, but on what should have been the last play of the THIRD perfect game this season, the umpire blew the call. Saying blew the call doesn't really do it justice, it's more like "DO YOU BELIEVE THIS SHIT?!?!?"

The talk now of course is going to be about instant replay. That's one solution. But there are ways this call could have been corrected without instant replay.

First of all, the Umpire, Jim Joyce, has been an umpire for 22 years. I don't want to seem disrespectful, because he admit he blew the call afterward, and I am sure he feels terrible, but he is gettin' up there. It's similar to the stories of elderly drivers who get behind the wheel and then plow into something. They shouldn't have been behind the wheel. Jim Joyce, he may be a nice guy, but when you blow calls like this, it's time to get off the field and hand the keys to someone else. Baseball doesn't necessarily need instant replays...it needs younger umpires. A 35 year old should be able to memorize the rulebook and run a game just as, if not more, efficiently than a 55 year old. Physically, the younger man should also be better able to handle the demands of moving around the field and the marathon schedules that are required of Major League Umpires. They could ump for 15 years and call it a career at 50.

But what about experience? This incident proves that experience is overrated. As mentioned, this guy has been an ump for 22 years, and none of that experience helped him make the proper call at the right time. His experience was worthless in the most crucial moment.

Maybe you like the older, more dignified umps. I figure they get 97-99% of the calls right, and that's pretty good. So what else can we do? In every other sport, when there is a crucial call, usually the officials will get together and talk it over. In basketball, they huddle around the scorers table, in football, they confer with the referee after a flag has been thrown. This helps to cover their ass and ensure correctness in the decision. How many times in the NFL has a flag been thrown, they have a conference, then the ref gets on his mic and says "there is no penalty on the play?" About once a week. In baseball there is none of this. Maybe Jim Joyce got confused and threw the safe sign by mistake. In baseball, that call is irrefutable. Not even the umpire can overturn his own call. I guarantee you Jim would have loved to have been able to huddle up with the other umps, who could have overruled him. Or at least they could have said "Uhhhh...Jim...he looked out buddy. Are you sure you want to stick with that call?" Jim would have had an avenue to reverse his decision and cover his ass.

Now he is just a goat. And the game, and Gallaraga, are all the poorer for it.