I’ve made another guest appearance at SweetSpot. This one focuses on the near-perfect games thrown by Detroit’s Armando Galarraga and San Diego’s Mat Latos in 2010. Although the outcomes were nearly identical, the two performances will be remembered differently by history because of a few critical differences that don’t show up in the box score:
Galarraga’s lone blemish occurred because first base umpire [Jim] Joyce incorrectly called Jason Donald safe. Latos’ came when he fumbled Eli Whiteside’s grounder before throwing to first a shade late. One man (Galarraga) was subject to forces beyond his control (Joyce’s imperfect interpretation of events), while the other (Latos) has only himself to blame (and forgive) for the event that kept him from pitching a perfect game.
This article has been gnawing at me for 8 months, so it’s good to get it out there. Enjoy…
Cool. Glad you got something Padre related over at the Sweetspot. Anything where Mat Latos is dominating the Giants makes me smile. #balls
no hitter broken up by scorekeeper..as a young padre fan did I not see Juan Eichelberger (sp) throw close to our first ever no hitter? Thanks for all that this site does for us Padre fans in the midwest!
Corey Brock with a good update on goings-on over at Peoria …
http://coreybrock.mlblogs.com/archives/2011/02/while_you_were_away.html
Anyone here looking for a job?
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/dreamjob/index.jsp
Downside is that you have to live in NYC
You’re slightly incorrect on the description on what happened in Latos’s game. It was a weakly hit grounder that Mat deflected while trying to field it. Headley ended up grabbing it and throwing to first a shade late.
@Zach: Thanks for setting the record straight. I knew Latos got a glove on it, but forgot that Headley made the throw. Of course, the fact that I don’t remember illustrates my point.
good read, man.
so is this:
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/02/thoughts-in-bookstore.html
and if you can guess the ending, your next beer at the ballpark is on me.