It would have been the 21st perfect game in more than 100 years of Major League Baseball. Even more amazing is the fact that there have already been 2 perfect games pitched this year; Roy Halladay of the Phillies and Dallas Braden of the A’s. The Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Gallaraga didn’t get the perfect game because of a botched call by umpire Jim Joyce. Joyce admitted after the game that it was a bad call stating “I just cost the kid a perfect game” as stated in the boston globe. Almost everyone has heard this story so I don’t want to get into details.

Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, has the power to overturn the call and make it a perfect game. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan thinks Selig should overturn the call, but she is a Senator from Michigan, not surprising she wants her home town teams pitcher to get the perfect game. That would be great to have Selig overturn the call and give the perfect game to Gallaraga because he does deserve it. The problem is what would that do for everyone else that has gotten screwed in the past? or will have a bad call go against them in the future? Most experts agree that Selig shouldnt change the call, but there should be a stronger system to rate umpires performances and additions to the replay system.

I value expert Keith Law’s baseball knowledge. Here is what Law of ESPN said:
“Do we really want any authority outside of the game to be able to go back, after the fact, and alter or tweak the results to suit popular sentiment? Why not just make it like American Idol and have each game result up for a vote?” Also stated “There’s no rule whatsoever allowing the Commissioner or anyone else to overturn an incorrect judgment call on the 27th out of the game. If you want to make such a rule – I don’t, but if you do – then you can’t apply it ex post facto to last night’s blunder. That’s an even bigger error than just reversing a call in a completed game.”

Here is Law’s stance on instant replay:
“I hate seeing that used as a cover/solution for the lack of accountability in umpiring. There’s no reward for doing it well, no disincentive for guys who do it poorly. This outrage glosses over the fact that calls are blown every night. Unless you intend to use replay 20+ times a game, fix the umpiring first, please.”

I agree with Law in saying that we should look at the umpiring accountability problem, not replay. We cannot change what has happened in or will happen in future major league baseball games. The Detroit Tigers still won the game and gallaraga helped them with the one hit, shutout. If people want to argue about blown umpiring calls, they should be the ones that are meaningful which would change the outcome of a game or a playoffs series.

I was given a warning shot from our friends at the Worldwide Leader, with the announcement that Stephen Strasburg will make his first major league start June 8 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. I call it a warning shot because the news broke today, and undoubtedly was featured on every major sports discussion for the day, but even the coverage today is no match for the absolute melee that will ensue next Tuesday leading up the most highly anticipated Nationals game in their history thus far. I am a sports junkie, especially baseball, but I’m fully prepared to be wore out on the Strasamania discussions all day Tuesday, and the live-and-die-on-every-pitch-then-dissect-it-later approach the various news outlets will take. Don’t get me wrong, I love the attention that baseball will get, rather than more talk about the NBA finals, but reaching DEFCON-5 over the next Mark Prior might be a little excessive.

All in all it was a brilliant ploy(if I can use the term ploy for a prospect being called up) by the Nat’s front office, announce his first start a week ahead of time, at home, against a team your fans have confidence in you to beat, and watch the tickets sell faster than you can print them. Being a marketing guy, I’m envious of the situation the Nationals are in, with the limitless opportunities to promote each next Strasburg home start. Strasburg Saturday! Double-Ticket-Price-Because-Its-Strasburg Tuesday! Strasdogs at the concessions! The opportunities are endless.

To make things even more over the top hype-filled, the Nationals will be drafting Bryce Harper #1 overall on Monday at the MLB Draft. If you haven’t heard about him, you’ve been under a rock, but he’s the 17 year old phenom that appeared on the SI cover at age 16, and then dropped out of high school to play community college baseball so he could be drafted one year earlier. And we thought high school kids going straight into the NBA was out of control. When it’s all said and done, you gotta love being Nationals GM Mike Rizzo on Monday and Tuesday next week, because you won’t be able to roundhouse kick the smile off his face. Hopefully for the Nationals’ franchise, these players become the wunderkid’s everyone’s hoping for, and they resurrect the once proud Expos franchise to levels of unmatched hype never even thought of before.