No Integrity in Baseball

Major League Baseball has yet to give Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga his perfect game. The precise reasons are unknown, as no one has actually said anything in particular about the issue. But it's safe to presume that they are based on two things: the integrity of the game, and letting human error stand.

These are premises at odds with one another. Integrity demands that human error be taken into account and corrected if possible. This is a very correctable situation. Not fixing it lacks rather than establishes integrity.

Sports are supposed to teach us integrity and fair play. Yet all the current situation teaches us is obstinacy, and in the most archaic manner. Bud Selig has essentially said what's ruled on the field stays on the field, a commendable sense of justice in the olden days before we could review and admit and correct error. Still, some fans and officials have asked, where does it stop? If MLB overrules this, then what else can be overruled?

There is an easy answer to this: whatever should be overruled based on the preponderance of the evidence. Not every single call in baseball, but only those where there is clear evidence of substantial human error.

Bud Selig is a coward on the perfect game we all saw. The Detroit Tigers themselves deserve a place in the hall of shame for not specifically asking MLB to change the call and give one of its own players the fame he earned on the field. The organization apparently is filled with timid cowards as well.

Hear this: Armando Galarraga will eventually get his due. But it will take people of greater conscience than who rule baseball today. Major League Baseball must get out of the 12th century and accept that we have the technology to make the game better. And the sooner the better, lest a great game be lost on history.