Armando Galarraga, Jim Joyce, And The Lost Perfect Game: An Outsider’s Perspective

Let me say up front that I’m no baseball expert, and any analysis here comes from a pretty casual, possibly ignorant perspective. But as far as this Armando Galarraga story’s concerned, can I ask: Why is this such a big f--ing deal?

I understand that it sucks for someone to lose a perfect game, but people are going NUTS over this stuff. For the record, Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game just became infinitely more memorable than those of Dallas Braden or Roy Halladay earlier this season.

Also for the record: It’s June 2. There have been THREE perfect games already. Clearly, the pendulum from the steroid era has swung a little further back toward the pitchers. So, would Galarraga’s perfect game even mean that much?

Some dude named “Dallas” threw one like last week.

The stories currently being tossed around:

All those are fine, but as someone who hasn’t watched a full baseball game all year, I’d say it’s equally relevant that, including Galarraga’s gem tonight, there have been 21 perfect games in baseball’s modern era, and three of them have happened this season, and it’s barely June.

Per Wikipedia, Baseball’s “modern era” stretches back to 1900... In other words, about 15% of the history accumulated over the course of 110 years has happened in the past six weeks. To me, that seems like something baseball should be concerned about.

...First, the players were taking steroids and hitting too much. Now, no steroids, and they’re not hitting at all. Somebody really needs to fire Bud Selig ASAP, before there’s a massive spike in walks, and nobody can do anything right.

My reaction to tonight’s news? Baseball’s just, plain, screwed up. If nothing else, it makes me appreciate the glory days of Ken Griffey, Jr. (which we should be doing anyway right about now).

GRIFFEY FOR PRESIDENT.