Armando Galarraga handled the blown perfect game perfectly, but he would like to see baseball use instant replay so another pitcher doesn’t miss out on perfection like he did as a result of a bad call.
“I say yes because [instant replay] is going to help the game,” the Tigers right-hander, who will start against the Mets tomorrow, said last night. “Technology now is so involved in the game. I think with stuff like that, really big things, you can use it. But you don’t want to slow the game down.”
At the least, Galarraga, 28, should be named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year for the way he reacted after first base umpire Jim Joyce blew the call on June 2 vs. the Indians on what should have been the final out and a perfect game.
He said players come up to him all the time and congratulate him for the way he has handled everything. The Mets’ Henry Blanco gave him a hug yesterday and told him, “Man, you handled it well. You’re doing a really good job.”
Said Galarraga, “This is all fine now, it’s all a nice memory and now it’s time to move on. Hopefully we can make the playoffs and I can have a good career.
“I smiled because I was nervous,” he said of his immediate reaction to Joyce’s call. He said he still has two boxes of mail at his locker, “I feel like a superstar,” he said, and his emails “have been crazy.”
The humanity he showed toward Joyce has made Galarraga one of the more beloved players in the game.
“I felt bad for him,” Galarraga said of Joyce. “When you see the guy, he can’t even talk because he was crying and crying and crying. He tried to tell me, ‘I’m so sorry.’ He told me I was perfect and he was not perfect. I was sick, because a perfect game is a dream come true for any pitcher, but when you saw the guy it made me feel so sorry.”
In the end, there were no words and Galarraga and Joyce hugged.
Galaragga loves the metallic gray Corvette that Chevrolet presented him with on the day after the game.
“That surprised me, and I said, ‘Oh my god,’ ” he recalled. “My wife has a Mini Cooper and I said, ‘We will sell it right now. Sell the Mini Cooper.’ “