I haven’t been able to think about much else baseball-related lately except the infamous perfect game that wasn’t. Have you ever seen anything more heartbreaking that didn’t involve an injury? What a moment that should have been — the third perfecto in less than a month, and from Armando Galarraga??? That’s what makes the outcome worse, that it happened to that guy. Roy Halladay, if he loses a perfect game, it means nothing to the scope of his career. He’s still a great pitcher and he will still be remembered. But Armando Galarraga is not a great pitcher. I could be wrong, but I highly doubt he’ll have any other opportunities for glory. Certainly not one-of-21-guys-in-history glory.

One of the commentators on MLB Network had it exactly right when he said that when Jim Joyce called the runner safe, every person watching instantly prayed he was right. What happened was the worst possible scenario: That the runner was out and the ump blew the call.

How much do you think Jim Joyce slept that night? I think he’ll be losing sleep about this one for a long time. I have to say that I don’t think badly of him at all. No matter how blatantly bad the call was, whatever the reason he missed it, no one could ever punish him more than he’s punished himself in the last two days. I feel as sick for him as I do for Galarraga, honestly. If it’s every pitcher’s dream to throw a perfect game, it has to be every umpire’s nightmare to singlehandedly ruin one. I don’t feel that he should be disciplined, reprimanded, suspended or punished in any way. He’s gotten that already and he’ll continue to get it forever. He could umpire for another 50 years and never make another mistake, and this will still be what he’s known for.

Some people have said that some of the famous blown calls in postseason games are actually worse than this one, because those affect the fate of an entire team in the playoffs. I disagree, though. There are no missed calls in the playoffs that I know of that decided the outcome of the game or the series. Affected the outcome, possibly, but didn’t decide it. It’s like the situation with the Bill Buckner error — people always forget that although that did cost the Red Sox the game, they still had the chance to win that series. They had another game. Same with the Bartman thing in Chicago. Those teams had other chances that they blew. If an umpiring decision directly cost a team a deciding game in a postseason series, then maybe that would be worse than this perfect game.

So now the calls are renewed and re-energized for more instant replay in baseball. Personally, I have felt all along that I’m uncomfortable expanding instant replay beyond home runs calls and fair-or-foul calls. Once you start adding safe-or-out, caught-or-trapped, tagged-or-missed, where do you stop? Everyone always says they’re not okay with using replay on balls and strikes, but if you’re replaying everything but, then why not balls and strikes too? Why not take human error out of the equation entirely? If you draw a line, where and why? And how do you make sure it stays there? Now that the door is open to review any kind of calls, it does make the missed calls on other plays stand out all the more. So I think I personally don’t want this incident to be the thing that brings instant replay even more into the game.

What I DO think is that Bud Selig should overturn the call. I can’t believe I’m saying that, and no, it’s not a great solution — Galarraga will never get to experience that moment of euphoria on the field even if he’s awarded the perfect game. But to me, that’s the best and most elegant solution. We all know he DID throw a perfect game. The 21st in history, third in this season. The umpire has admitted he blew the call. And Bob Costas had a great point tonight on the MLB Network: This situation has never happened before in baseball, and there is no real likelihood it will ever happen again. Therefore, it sets no precedent if Selig overturns the call. If another pitcher throws a perfect game and loses it in the final out on a blatant missed call by the umpire, then by all means, overturn that one too, but realistically these exact circumstances will never happen again if baseball is played for another 200 years. It changes nothing – Galarraga and the Tigers still get a shutout win. The only difference is that it would remove one hit allowed from Galarraga’s record.

And it would give him what he deserves: A place on a very short list. Yes, he would miss the chance to celebrate on-field with his teammates. Yes, it wouldn’t be quite the same. But he would be there in the record books for all time as the 21st pitcher to throw a perfect game. He earned that and he should have it.

Unfortunately, it seems Selig has already shut down any idea that he might overturn the call, instead releasing another of his mealy statements about “considering” and “addressing” and “consulting.” So it won’t happen. Yet another instance in which Selig will do the wimpy thing. For once in your life, Bud, listen to your heart (if it hasn’t shriveled entirely away), take a stand and do the strong thing. Say “I am the Commissioner of Baseball and I have decided that, due to the utter uniqueness of this situation, to do the unprecedented thing and give this kid what he deserves: his place in baseball history.”

Obviously we all wish we could just change what happened. No one wishes that more than the people directly involved. But it happened. Even if nothing gets changed in retrospect, we’ll certainly never forget it. Galarraga will at least get that measure of immortality.

And every single person involved has handled it with the greatest imaginable amount of class. A situation that could easily have gotten so ugly, both at the time and afterwards, handled beautifully all around. Galarrage, Joyce, Leyland, even the Detroit fans, not historically known for their forgiving nature, all have behaved with dignity, grace, kindness and pure good sportsmanship. They’ve taken an ugly thing and made it inspiring. And honestly, I find that as beautiful as a perfect game.