Baseball will not change the call that cost Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game on Wednesday night.
Umpire Jim Joyce accepts Thursday's lineup card from Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga. A blown call by Joyce Wednesday night cost Galarraga a perfect game. Joyce was the plate umpire Thursday in the Tigers' 12-6 win over the Indians.Detroit -- Commissioner Bud Selig isn't going to mess with history. The botched perfect game will stand.
The only place Armando Galarraga's perfect game will be on display is in his heart. Umpire Jim Joyce, meanwhile, will have to live with the burden of his blown call with two outs in the ninth inning Wednesday night that gave Indians shortstop Jason Donald an infield hit when he was clearly out.
In a statement released during Thursday's game between the Indians and Tigers, Selig said he will examine MLB's umpiring system and the expanded use of instant replay, but made no mention of stepping in and awarding Galarraga a perfect game.
Joyce worked the plate in Thursday's 12-6 Detroit victory. Tigers manager Jim Leyland asked Galarraga to present the lineup card to Joyce and the rest of the umpires to show that there were no hard feelings after the emotions of Wednesday night. Joyce already had apologized to Galarraga after Wednesday's game.
Galarraga agreed and shook hands with Joyce before Thursday's game. There were some boos in the crowd of 28,169, but not many.
"I think I'd be able to hear out there," said Joyce after the game. "I thought it would be very negative. I was waiting for it. I expected it and I was going to accept it.
"I was pleasantly surprised from the feelings of the fans. . . . This is a great city."
Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga receives a Corvette on Thursday at home plate in Detroit. The car was a gift from Chevrolet after Galarraga lost a perfect game Wednesday night. To further neutralize any ill feelings from the crowd, the Tigers and Chevrolet presented Galarraga with new 2010 cherry red Corvette. They said it was not only for his performance on Wednesday -- he went home with a one-hit 3-0 shutout victory -- but the sportsmanship he showed in not arguing with Joyce before or immediately after the game as many of his teammates did.
"This isn't a day to boo a bad call," said Leyland, before the game. "It's a day to cheer the integrity of the umpire and to feel bad for Armando Galarraga. I feel bad for Armando, but I feel more saddened for the umpire."
MLB gave Joyce the option of taking Thursday off.
"If I didn't show up here, I don't think I could have faced myself," said Joyce.
Manager Manny Acta was not surprised that Selig did not overturn Joyce's safe call that robbed Galarraga of becoming the 21st pitcher in history to throw a perfect game.
"If he had done something like that, he would have opened a whole can of worms," said Acta. "If you change that, then the next thing we'd want him to do is change the play before that one.
"How about that Jim Joyce today? He was great behind the plate. Umpires are just like third-base coaches. You only notice them when they miss one. Not too many people can bounce back from a traumatic moment like that one and call the game he called today.
"He should be on every front page tomorrow and every highlight tonight, but he won't because that won't sell."
Before Wednesday night, Joyce preferred that his 15 minutes of fame would have come from making a great call at home plate during the World Series. It's turned out differently.
"I just hope my 15 minutes are over to tell you the absolute truth," said Joyce.
We don't need no stinking huddle: Asked whether the umpires should have huddled to get the play right Wednesday night, Leyland said: "No huddle. We're talking silly stuff."
Of the game itself, Leyland said: "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 in Venezuela after the game.
"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: Tigers 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 [his life].
"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: Acta does not want instant replay expanded.
"That's my personal opinion," said Acta, a citizen of the United States and the Dominican Republic. "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."