Gallaraga's Class the Highlight of Perfect One-Hitter

There should be no debate, hand-wringing or intense meetings to determine Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2010. As a matter of fact, the award should be presented as soon as possible to Armando Gallaraga of the Detroit Tigers. Nobody could possibly top his sportsmanship under the most stressful and trying of circumstances.

The setting is Comerica Park in Detroit on June 2^nd, 2010. Gallaraga has faced 26 hitters (only in the technical sense of the word since they were all Cleveland Indians) and set each one of them down. He had just gotten what might be the defensive play of the year from centerfielder Austin Jackson, who ran down and made a circus catch of a scaulded drive to start the ninth. After a weak ground out, the stage was set for the third perfect game of 2010, a scenario so ridiculous with just two months of the season gone that it made perfect sense.

Up to the plate comes Luke Donald, a 25-year-old shortstop with a handful of games under his belt at the major league level. The right-handed Donald hit a grounder that first baseman Miguel Cabrera ranged to his right and gloved, but much too far away from the bag to even consider beating the batter to the base. Cabrera flipped the ball to Gallaraga covering the bag in plenty of time to record the out. Gallaraga, with ball now in glove, had his foot planted squarely on first well before Donald's cleats hit the bag. All that was left for veteran umpire Jim Joyce to do was to call the batter out and then try to avoid becoming swept up in celebrating Tigers.

Joyce was swept up, but not by any perfect game merriment. It was a maelstrom of controversy instead that he found himself engulfed in when he called Donald safe. Gallaraga, who was about to become the 21^st man to hurl a perfect game, lost that distinction through no fault of his own, but earned another that over time may mean even more. When the worst call that anyone can remember in recent baseball history went against him, he simply looked at Joyce and smiled. It was the type of smile that you might possibly make when your mother told you she knew you had eaten that last brownie.

After Galaraga completed his perfect one-hitter, several Tiger players along with manager Jim Leyland laid into Joyce on the field. But not Gallaraga. In interviews after the game, he said how he felt badly for Joyce because of what the blown call would now mean to his career. And he sounded like he meant it. He had not had to time to sit with spin-doctors and discuss what he should say to the media. He genuinely felt terrible for Joyce.

To his credit, Joyce watched the replay and confessed he had blown the call, telling everyone that he was sure Donald had beaten the play. Television replays showed Joyce perhaps paid too much attention to Cabrera's fielding of the grounder and did not shift his gaze rapidly enough to the bag to make the correct call. Joyce now knows, as he told reporters, that his entire umpiring career would become a footnote to this incident. This is a shame as well, perhaps bigger than the loss of a perfect game. At least Gallaraga has the comfort of knowing in his heart that he did indeed throw the gem. However, more importantly on a different level, rather than throw Jim Joyce under the bus, he took the high road. It is the path that very few human beings would have chosen on that night.