Dear Commissioner Selig,
This should be a proud moment for baseball.
Not one, not two, but three perfect games thrown inside a month's time. That's historic.
We should be celebrating what an incredible performance Tigers starter Armando Galarraga threw -- 27 Indians up, 27 Indians down -- in just 83 pitches. It was an extraordinary day.
Unfortunately, we're all watching as one of your umpires, Jim Joyce, has the worst call of his life replayed again and again and again on television.
We're looking at headlines on the major sports sites that read "Perfect Crime," "Perfection Ruined," "Perfectly Awful," "Perfect Heist," and the like.
Joyce knows it. In an act of class, Joyce spoke to the media briefly after the game, saying:
"Biggest call of my career, and I kicked the shit out of it. I don't know what to do. I just cost that kid a perfect game."
It was an extraordinary day, indeed. Now, it's time to make some history of your own, Mr. Selig.
Every replay clearly shows the 27th out was made. An emotional Joyce acknowledged his mistake. Everyone on the field, everyone in the media, every one of your millions of fans knows what happened on Wednesday night at Comerica Park.
Now you must step in to declare that Galarraga pitched the 21st perfect game in the history of the MLB. Anything less just continues to mock your sport and results in another black eye for a league that has taken it on the chin repeatedly during your time as commissioner.
Sadly, I know how this will turn out.
In the near future, everyone will acknowledge Galarraga's perfection. Even you, privately. At some point, the 22nd perfect game will be pitched. The umpires will get it right. And a pitcher will go into the history books on Galarraga's line.
In later years, Galarraga's feat -- never placed in the history books due to a single lapse by one of the steward's of the game -- will be lost.
You will, of course, will start work to expand instant replay to fix the kind of egregious, game-changing mistakes that happen far too often in your sport.
But it's too late for Galarraga and for the Tigers fans.
That's too bad. We should be celebrating Galarraga today.
Instead, I'm writing about you.