Meet the New Instant Replay Poster Child

Not really sure where to begin. I'm not sure whether I should feel sorry for Tiger's pitcher Armando Galarraga, feel sorry for umpire Jim Joyce, or feel angry towards MLB for holding up a ridiculous rule for the past ten or so years. In case you missed it, Galarraga hustled to cover first base to make the 27th out in what should have been his perfect game, beating the base runner by half a step. He even began to celebrate, but it was cut short when he saw first base umpire Jim Joyce hold up the safe sign. Galarraga surprisingly kept his cool while others from the Tigers' bench gave Joyce a piece of their minds.

Fast forward to after the game. Joyce admitted that he blew the call. He even apologized to Galarraga for blowing the call (sort of, I never actually heard "I'm sorry"). I'm not mad at Joyce. He admitted that he blew the call. Umpires make mistakes, sometimes at really bad times. From his angle he thought that the base runner beat the throw, however the cameras disagreed. I've heard a lot of stupid things said over the past hour, like "If an umpire called him safe then he is safe." Apparently umpires are more infallible than the pope.

Hopefully Galarraga's stolen perfect game and Joyce's bad call can act as a catalyst to get instant replay put in baseball. Let balls and strikes be, but lets take a second look at tags, force outs, and foul balls. Take some pressure off the umpires. Don't rob a pitcher of a perfect game again.