The un-perfect game
"Nobody's perfect." - Armando Gallaraga of the Detroit Tigers, in response to a reporter's question about the umpiring mistake that cost him an offical perfect game. He said it with a smile. Perfect games in baseball, THE perfect game, are scarcer than hen's teeth. And yet there have already been two official perfect games this season and one unofficial one that is destined to be the most famous of the three. Last night in Detroit, in the game between the Tigers and the Cleveland Indians, Armando Gallaraga of the Tigers faced 26 batters from the Indians and set them down one after the other. Then he faced the 27th, Jason Donald. Donald hit the ball to the first baseman Miguel Cabrera who fielded it between first and second base and tossed it to Gallaraga who was covering first. Gallaraga, with his foot on the bag, closed his glove on the ball a moment before Donald's foot touched the bad. The first base umpire Jim Joyce called him safe and Gallaraga ...