You Can Make It Right, Bud Selig

Imagine history that never happened.  A game that never was.  Well, at least an ending that should have been, but never will be.  If this sounds like a beginning to something like the Twilight Zone, you'd almost be right.

Except this actually happened.

Or did it?

Detroit Tiger's pitcher Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game.  And he may be the first player to reach a nine-inning, 28-out perfection.  Instead of becoming the 21st perfect pitcher in baseball's 135 year history, Galarraga will have to settle for throwing the most perfect one hitter in MLB history.

I'm sure a few other pitchers have been robbed of becoming part of baseball legend.

But none like this.

Ninth inning.  Two outs.  Grounder towards first base.  Pitcher beats the runner to the bag.  Except...he didn't.  Or did he?

Commissioner Bud Selig can preach protocol all he wants.  Human element is part of the game.  The umpires are part of the game.  Cannot undo what has been done.

Make it right, Bud.

Call this the extraordinary of all extraordinary circumstances.  Call it a one-time exception.  Say you can make it right because it happened on the last out of the game.  The only thing being changed is one at bat.

To say baseball can't change one at-bat is a lie.  In fact, baseball does it all the time.

Scorekeepers change errors into hits, or hits into errors, after the fact.  It happens multiple times a year.  A team can request a review of said play.  It can be reviewed.  And if an error is believed to have taken place, the original scorekeeper's decision can be overruled.  Even the original scorekeeper can make a change by the end of the game.

Make it right, Bud.

You've been known for a lot of things over the years.  A new stadium peddler.  A nickel and dime owner.  Someone who helped foster a steroid environment by looking the other way.  Now is the opportunity to do the right thing.  Everyone knows Galarraga pitched a perfect game.

Say so!  Use your commissioner powers for something that makes sense.  Even the umpire admitted he blew the call.  I can tell you no one feels worse than Jim Joyce, and the class it took to be willing to answer reporters after the game, to go down to the locker room and apologize to Detroit manager Jim Leyland and to Galarraga, Joyce showed something many umpires have lacked this season. 

If anything, Selig should make it right for Joyce.  This man, who has otherwise been a very good umpire for his career, will now be forever known as the man who ruined the perfect game. 

Some may argue that goes with the territory.  I would normally say that is the case.  But not the ninth inning.  Not with two outs.  Not when someone can make it right.

In an ESPN.com poll, 76 percent of more than 90,000 fans to respond said baseball should change the call and award Galarraga a perfect game.

Make it right, Bud.

Show the same class Joyce showed to Galarraga.  Galarraga deserves his moment.  He earned it. To say he pitched perfection, but didn't actually pitch perfect is something for some cheesy sci-fi novel.  Not reality.

If you do nothing, it isn't the umpiring that failed Galarraga. It's baseball.

Make it right, Bud.