Tiger GM Dave Dombrowski wants instant replay expanded. Indians manager Manny Acta doesn't agree.
DETROIT, Mich. -- This is a daily briefing of the Indians 2010 season. They play the Tigers today in the final game of a three-game series at Comerica Park. The dimensions at Comerica are 345 feet to left field, 347 to left center, 420 to center, 365 to right center and 330 to right.
Game 52: Observations from the perfect game that wasn't:
-Give points to Armando Galarraga for agreeing to take the lineup card out to home plate today to show there was no hard feelings with plate umpire Jim Joyce. Joyce, of course, cost Galarraga a perfect game Wednesday night when he called Jason Donald safe with two out in the ninth.
Donald was clearly out and Joyce admitted he blew the call.
-I was walking down the steps when Tigers officials broached the subject with Galarraga. His initial response, "Really?' But they told him it was the right thing to do. Galarraga, a good kid, said yes.
Before the game, the Tigers and Chevrolet presented Galarraga with a 2010 cherry red Corvette. When Galarraga took the lineup card out to the umpires, and handed it to Joyce, there were a few boos, but not many.
-Tiger manager Jim Leyland said MLB gave Joyce and out. They said he could take today off and another umpire would be assigned to the game. Joyce said no.
"This isn't a day to boo a bad call," said Leyland. "It's a day to cheer integrity of the umpire and to feel bad for Armando Galarraga. I feel bad for Armando, but I feel more saddened for the umpire.
"It's just not fair. Don Denkinger has probably lived with that call in the World Series (1985) forever. And he was another very good umpire."
Said Tribe first baseman Russell Branyan: "Jim Joyce has the eyes of an eagle, ice water in his veins and a lot of stones.
-More Leyland: Asked if the umpires should have huddled to get the play right, "No huddle. We're talking silly stuff."
Leyland on the game itself: "This game will never be forgotten. This game will be talked about forever even though it didn't turn out exactly perfect."
-Call from home: Galarraga talked to his mother and father after the game in Venezuela.
"My dad told me, "In my heart you threw a perfect game.' He told me to save the ball and the CD of the game."
Venezuela TV picked up the game from the seventh inning when word spread that he was throwing a perfect game.
"I only slept a couple of hours," Galarraga said. "Reporters from Venezuela were calling me all night."
Replay question: GM Dave Dombrowski thinks replay should be expanded.
"I've always felt that today's system is fine, a good step," said Dombrowski. "I now will say that we can do something for the next step. There's a very easy reason to tell you why: I don't think an umpire should have to live with that the rest of their lives.
"When I saw Joyce afterward, that's not going away for a long time. When I see Don Denkinger and what's happened to him. . .I'm not saying that every call should be reviewed, but there has to be some kind of system in place that takes that burden off of him."
-No instant replay: Indians manager Manny Acta does not way instant replay expanded.
"That's my personal opinion," said Acta. "That's why I moved to America the Beautiful so I can have my own.
"I think it's great that we have it for home runs because every new stadium is built like a pinball machine. Other than that, no. I don't want to take human element out of the game.
"We've played baseball for long time. I don't want to turn baseball into a football game where you have to throw a flag on the field. I feel bad for Jim. Let me tell you what: Jim is what an umpire should be. If I had to pick an All-Star group of umpires to umpire every game I managed, Jim Joyce would be on it."
So why not use instant replay so a good umpire like Joyce doesn't have to live with a call like that?
"Then why don't we just grab three guys off the street on the way to the game every day and put them on the bases?" said Acta, a citizen of the United States and Dominican Republic. "That way we don't have to worry about it because anyone can miss a call and we can go look at it on the replay.
"I don't want to do that. That eliminates people's effort and due diligence to be good at what they do. Why do I have to work hard at anything I do if anything close is going to be reviewed and I'm off the hook?"
Close eye: Acta said the Indians will be watching how David Huff reacts to balls off the bat today. Huff made his first start since Saturday when he was hit above the left earn at Yankee Stadium on a line drive by Alex Rodriguez.
"I was on the conservative side from the get go," said Acta. "I said let's DL this guy and give him some time off. But the very next day he was in the dugout for the whole game like nothing happened. We've run every test possible. He's ready to go."
Acta added, "It's easier to throw a bullpen than to see a ball come off the bat again. That's what we'll be watching. We're going to be watching if he flinches or anything like that."
Lineups: Indians (19-32): CF Trevor Crowe (S), RF Shin-Soo Choo (L), DH Travis Hafner (L), 3B Jhonny Peralta (R), 1B Russell Branyan (L), LF Matt LaPorta (R), 2B Luis Valbuena (L), C Lou Marson (R), SS Jason Donald (R) and LHP David Huff (2-6, 5.54).
Tigers (27-25): CF Austin Jackson (R), LF Ryan Raburn (R), RF Magglio Ordonez (R), 1B Miguel Cabrera (R), DH Brennan Boesch (L), 2B Carlos Guillen (S), 3B Brandon Inge (R), C Gerald Laird (R), SS Adam Everett (R) and RHP Rick Porcello (4-5, 5.27).
Umpires: H Jim Joyce, 1B Jim Wolf, 2B Derry Cousins, 3B Marvin Hudson.
Quote of the day: "Ideally, the umpire should combine the integrity of a Supreme Court justice, the physical ability of an acrobat, the endurance of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha," from The Villains in Blue," Time, Aug. 25, 1961, as it appeared in Baseball's Greatest Quotations by Paul Dickson.
Next: RHP Justin Masterson (0-5, 5.87) vs. Chicago's LHP John Danks () Friday at 8:10 p.m. EST at U.S. Cellular Field.