Daily blurb
The baseball story of the day on Wednesday would have been the retirement of Ken Griffey, Jr. Then Armando Galarraga threatened to upstage Griffey by pitching a perfect game. But finally, the “imperfect game” developed, resulting in what was probably an even bigger story than a perfect game would have been.

Frankly, this one seems easy to resolve. The rest of the world saw the instant replay, and easily saw that the runner was out. The umpire freely admitted it. That game should have ended. Why can’t Bud Selig, using his “best interests of baseball” powers, simply reverse the call and make it right? I understand the danger of setting precedents, but one of these days, this type of call will be reviewable anyway, and there seems to be no harm in actually “getting it right.” I doubt if that will happen, though.

And curiously, Galarraga may actually be better served by being remembered as the guy who was robbed of a perfect game – and then handled it so graciously. The postgame confession of Jim Joyce and the reaction of Galarraga should probably be required viewing for every professional and amateur player, coach, and umpire. Galarraga will probably never rise to the elite level in baseball as a pitcher. But he’s clearly already an elite player with regard to his comportment.

By the way, I wonder if Detroit will now try to sell out yesterday’s game? The reported attendance was only 17,783, so good seats are certainly still available.

As to Griffey, it’s been awhile, but there was a time that he was widely regarded as the best player on the planet. From 1993-2000, he homered 315 times, approximately once every 13.7 plate appearances. He had decent speed, typically swiping 15-20 bases each year during the first half of his career. And 10 Gold Glove awards testify to his stature as one of the best centerfielders in the game during his heyday. At one point, he was projected to retire with all time numbers in several categories, but injuries really impeded his performance in the second half of his career.