The call

Armando Galarraga smiled. Miguel Cabrera raised his hands up in the air. Jason Donald stared down at the ground. The umpire called safe and everything was different.

Armando Galarraga had thrown 8.2 perfect innings in the game. Earlier in the 9th inning, Austin Jackson had made a great catch in center to keep it going. Galarraga had struck out just 3 batters, but he was dominating. He had thrown just 85 pitches. Jason Donald hit a grounder to 1st Miguel Cabrera fielded the ball and flipped to Galarraga, who was covering first. Galarraga's foot was clearly on the base, and Donald was out by half a step. But then, the umpire, Jim Joyce, called Donald safe. The whole stadium was stunned. Jim Leyland came out to argue, but to no avail.

2 pitches later, Galarraga retired Trevor Crowe. The game was over and Galarraga had thrown a 1-hitter. After the game ended, many Tigers players went back to argue with Joyce, but, it was too late. So close, but so far away...

Joyce has since admitted his mistake. Thank you for apologizing, Jim, but it's too late. Can MLB, especially Commissioner Selig do anything about it? Even if they could, they probably wouldn't. It's too late.

But, it's not too late to fix this problem. With all likelihood, Galarraga will never get his perfect game, but there's something Commmisioner Selig can do to make sure this never happens again: instant replay review just for the 9th inning. On bang-bang plays, the umpires should be able to go to replay. The instant replay for home runs is great, and umpires are 99% of the time very good, but sometimes the 9th inning determines the entire game. A close play at home- go to replay. A close play at 1st- go to replay. A questionable homer- obviously they would still be able to go to replay. This is an inexcusable mistake that should never happen again.

28 year old RHP Armando Galaraga had a 20-18 career record and a 4.62 ERA in 56 starts and 9 relief appearances entering the near-perfect game. He is now 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA in 3 starts and a relief appearance so far in '10.