NEW YORK — Dave Stieb said he can sympathize with Armando Galarraga, who lost a perfect game when an umpire blew a call on what would have been the final out.
Stieb, an All-Star who had a 16-year Major League Baseball career, twice had no-hitters broken up with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning. He also lost a perfect game with two outs in the final inning.
Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers retired 26 straight batters in last night’s 3-0 win against Cleveland before first-base umpire Jim Joyce ruled that Jason Donald of the Indians beat out a ground ball for a base hit. Replays showed Donald was out and Joyce acknowledged that his mistake cost Galarraga the 21st perfect game in major-league history.
“It’s a total letdown because it’s such a buildup to get to that point,” Stieb, who played 15 seasons for the ɫɫ Blue Jays, said in a telephone interview. “Everything has to go your way and then when it doesn’t happen, especially with something like this — a bad call, or in my case I lost a no- hitter with a bad hop — when things are out of your hands like that, it’s very difficult. It’s a shock. It’s numbing.”
Stieb, 52, fell one out short of no-hitters in consecutive starts during the 1988 season, one when a ball took a bad hop and the other on a bloop hit. His chance for a perfect game was broken up the next season when Roberto Kelly doubled with two outs in the ninth. Stieb finally pitched the only no-hitter in Blue Jays’ history in 1990.
“I’d love to be able to say I got three no-hitters and a perfect game, but instead I’ve just got one no-hitter,” Stieb said from his home in Reno, Nevada. “They’re all great feats in themselves, but you don’t forget that stuff.”
Joyce, who has been an umpire since 1989, apologized to Galarraga after the game, saying he blew the “biggest call of my career.” The 28-year-old Galarraga, from Venezuela, said he appreciated the gesture.
“You don’t see an umpire after the game come out and say, ’Hey, let me tell you I’m sorry,’” Galarraga told reporters. “He apologized to me and he felt really bad. He didn’t even shower. He was in the same clothes. He gave me a couple hugs.”
David Wells, who threw a perfect game for the New York Yankees in 1998, said Galarraga should be commended for his restraint. Galarraga smiled after Joyce’s call, returned to the mound as fans booed in Detroit and retired the next batter to end the game.
“I would have gotten thrown out of the game,” Wells, who is now a baseball analyst for Time Warner Inc.’s TBS network, said in a telephone interview. “I would have (cursed) him big time. There’s just no question I would never have finished that game.”
Galarraga brought the Tigers’ lineup card for today’s game out to Joyce, who was the home-plate umpire. The two shook hands and Joyce shed tears as Tigers fans applauded, said.
Joyce’s error may fuel calls for wider use of replays in baseball, which only allows reviews to determine whether a home run is valid. Decisions by umpires can’t be challenged.
In an poll, 76 per cent of more than 90,000 fans to respond said baseball should change the call and award Galarraga a perfect game.
No Review
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement that he will examine expanded use of instant replay and the sport’s umpiring system. He made no mention in the statement of changing Joyce’s call and the Associated Press said Selig won’t reverse it, citing an unidentified baseball official familiar with the decision.
“As Jim Joyce said in his postgame comments, there is no dispute that last night’s game should have ended differently,” Selig said. “While the human element has always been an integral part of baseball, it is vital that mistakes on the field be addressed.”
Stieb, who spoke before Selig’s statement, said the call should be overturned.
“In a case like this it should be looked at and given to the guy,” Stieb said. “It’s an unbelievable feat and to lose it on somebody making a mistake like that—we all know mistakes happen, so why not correct it?”
Galarraga, who has a 21-18 career record, was seeking to become the third pitcher to throw a perfect game this season. Roy Halladay did it for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Florida Marlins on May 29 and Dallas Braden achieved the feat on May 9 in the Oakland Athletics’ 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
“If he never gets one, he probably will look back at it,” Stieb said of Galarraga. “They creep up in my head from time to time and it’s been 20-some years.”
With a file from Associated Press
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