The MLB has had endless controversial moments throughout its history, however, the “almost” Perfect Game of former Venezuelan pitcher Armando Galarraga is one of the most remembered and controversial cases that has been has seen in the century 21 and today it has played again thanks to a group of university students.
And the members of a law class at Monmouth University in New Jersey have sent a document from 82 pages to the MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred, requesting that Armando Galarraga’s start be validated as a Perfect Game, according to ‘The Asbury Park Press’.
In the year 1991, the Venezuelan right-hander who was part of the Detroit Tigers , was close to entering the history books of the Majors and of his native country, however, a bad sentence by the now-retired umpire Jim Joyce, in which he painted to be the last out, damaged what could be a night perfect.
It should be remembered that at that time there was no instant replay that is used today, which could have reversed Joyce’s sentence and made history not only for the pitcher and his team, but for all of baseball.
It is because of that 12 Years later, we have a group of law students who have apparently found serious reasons to put together an application for 82 pages, with the intention that Commissioner Manfred evaluate the possibility of “doing justice” and allowing Armando Galarraga to have his Perfect Game in the book of the history of the Major Leagues.
One point to take into account about the feat that the right-handed pitcher could not achieve is that he was going to become the first Venezuelan to achieve a ‘Perfect Game ‘ in the Majors, however, those honors went to the also right-hander Félix Hernández in 2012 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
It should be remembered that before Hernández’s Perfect Game, left-hander Wilson Álvarez had become the first Venezuelan to achieve a pitching feat in the MLB, when he pitched a no-hit, no-run game against the Baltimore Orioles in 1991, while he was part of the Chicago White Sox.
However, it should be clarified that a Perfect Game consists of drawing the 27 outs in order, with no one reaching first by any means. And in the case of Wilson Álvarez, he allowed five walks, which took away his “perfection”, but did not prevent his name from being reflected in the history of Major League Baseball and Venezuela.
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