Armando is gone, as expected, plus some other things.

image by Samara Pearlstein

No shock here, but Armando Galarraga has been traded to the Diamondbacks, where he will definitely get more of a chance to start than he would have gotten in Detroit (barring immediate Tiger injury/disaster, of course). The Snakes will pick up his entire salary, and the Tigers get pitchers Kevin Eichhorn and Ryan Robowski.

Eichhorn will be 21 this year. He spent most of ’10 in rookie ball, with brief appearances at low and high single-A. Robowski will be 23 and spent all of 2010 in high-A. Both of them had some Issues last year. They will be low minors fodder; this was mostly a Move Armando kind of deal. The Dbacks get a pitcher they need to make some starts, the Tigers get a pitcher they weren’t going to use off the books. Everyone wins, at least until Brad Penny’s shoulder falls off and Armando throws a no-hitter against the Rockies and the Tigers are left looking stupid.

The nice thing is that if Ryan Robowski makes it back up at a time when Ryan Raburn is still on the roster, we can start to recoup the loss of Rs that we suffered when Arrrrrrmando Galarrrrrrraga departed.

Other News That I Am Too Lazy to Make a New Post for

–The Tigers are retiring Sparky Anderson’s number. There has been a fair amount of chatter on the internet about this being a too-little-too-late kind of thing. I think most people agree that it’s the right thing to do, on its own, and I think most people would have liked to see it done while Sparky was still around, ideally while he was still mobile enough to make it out to the ballpark.

Obviously it’s way too late for that now, at least until the zombie apocalypse. So do you keep on being annoyed that they didn’t give him this honor in a timely fashion, or do you look past that and just try to be happy that it’s finally happening? I don’t know. Life sucks and then you die. But if you were awesome, they retire your number.

–Apparently the team is going to wear a patch with the word SPARKY and the number 11 on it this season. So are they retiring the EH patch? I think they should wear both. I’m aware that’s creeping up on Patch Overload, but quite frankly I don’t think that part of one season was enough to patch-honor Ernie Harwell. I’d give it at least another full season.

–TigerFest and the Winter Caravan happened, and obviously I could not attend any of the festivities. I guess TigerFest was streamed online in some capacity? but I wasn’t home at all that day, so I really missed it. WOE. Under the link are a whole bunch of linked photos from the internet, in case you too missed it.

Dave Dombrowski’s superpower, and the probable end of Armando.

illustration by Samara Pearlstein

It’s not his ability to wear the heck out of a striped polo, although you may be forgiven for thinking that’s it. No, Dave Dombrowski’s superpower is his ability to

AVOID ARBITRATION

Dave Dombrowski has been in charge of the Tigers since 2002, and in that time he has not ONCE gone to arbitration with a player. Guys, it’s 2011. Think about that. It’s obviously a superpower. What else could it possibly be, at this point?

The arb-eligible Tigers this time around were Ryan Raburn, Joel Zumaya, and Armando Galarraga. Obviously they signed the Rhino. They also signed Zoom to a one-year, $1.4 million contract, hoping that he will actually be able to stay healthy for the bulk of the 2011 season (I won’t say the whole season… can’t get crazy, now).

Then there was Armando.

The Tigers signed him to a one-year, $2.3 million contract, avoiding arbitration. The rotation at this point consisted of (in no particular order) Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello, Max Scherzer, Brad Penny, Phil Coke, and Armando. Obviously that’s too many cats, but that was a good thing. FredFred had some roughness last year that may or may not be firmly and finally resolved, Brad Penny could oh-so-easily get sore again, I’m still waiting for Justin’s arm to fall off, and Phil Coke might end up pitching like a reliever. Having Armando around meant that if any of those scenarios came to pass, the Tigers wouldn’t have to immediately dip into the Toledo kittens (the Andy Olivers and Jacob Turners of the world) to stabilize the rotation. All seemed well.

BUT NO IT’S A LIE ALL IS LIES. Almost immediately after they had signed him, the Tigers turned right back around and designated Armando for assignment. That was… odd. What say you, Mr. Dombrowski?

In this situation, we thought long and hard. It was one that after Penny went through his physical and passed his physical, we were in a spot where for Armando, right now, we thought he goes in as a sixth starter. We don’t really look at him as a reliever. This is probably a better time to try to move his contract somewhere he can find a spot in a rotation, rather than come into Spring Training.
Jason Beck/DetroitTigers.com

Okaaaaaaay. Like nobody was aware that they were going to suddenly need a roster spot when Penny’s deal was finalized? Or… what. It’s just weird timing all ’round and no matter how much they try to make it seem premeditated, it is hard to imagine this playing out like it did without some sort of last-minute ‘ruh roh we missed that one, quick, this is the only way we can fix it’ stuff happening. They DFA’d him six hours after they agreed to a deal with him. RUDE.

Now the Tigers have 10 days to try to trade Armando to someone who will use him as a starter. If there are no takers, they’ll probably try to outright him to the minors (they could also straight-up release him, but that seems unlikely) (then again, I would have thought this sort of rudeness was also unlikely) (so who knows) (aside from Paws, who knows all). But he would have to get through waivers first and with a one-year, sub-ridiculous contract, I find it kind of difficult to believe that he would make it through waivers unclaimed.

So it seems like this is goodbye.

Fare thee well, Armando! We will miss rolling all the Rs in your name, and your amazing sonic powers, and hoping for more perfection, and 2008, and your dog.

NEVER FORGET

Eight Nights of Terrible Chanukah Cartoons: Night Seven

illustration by Samara Pearlstein

A perfect game of dreidel is a rare thing indeed. And this time, Jim Joyce can do nothing to take Armando’s victory gelt away from him.

Armando goes to pieces.

image by Samara Pearlstein

This has kind of been Armando Galarraga’s entire season. He’s cruising along the Highway of Awesome for a while, rockin’ out to the radio, no-hitting the Racist Logos for four innings, etc. Then he hits some roadblock like a busted umpire call or an error, or he gives up a big hit, and it’s all over, he just falls apart right there on the mound.

Today it was a Matt LaPorta home run that set him off. I know the kid has been a disappointment in general, but the power is kind of why the Racist Logos picked him up, it’s what he is supposed to do. Sure, it can be disconcerting to get hit by a Disappointment, but it’s not like we’re talking about a proto-Adam-Everett or something. Matt LaPorta and home runs were BFF once and the organizational hope is that they will be BFF again soon.

The point is that Armando should not have felt so bad about giving up a LaPorta HR that he immediately fell to pieces out there, all arm-bits goin’ in one direction, eyeballs goin’ another way. But he DID get that rattled, because he DID fall apart.

Ever since The Perfect Game, he’s had reason to believe that he was being victimized, and he’s had all kinds of awful reinforcement of that idea. In the 20 starts he has made since that game, he’s gone 6+ innings 10 times, and the Tigers have won 8 of his starts… but he’s only gotten 3 Ws for himself. So he’s had a lot of losing and a lot of non-support. Add to that the fact that every time a vaguely borderline call goes against him, he gets to enjoy the nagging feeling that it’s because the umpires hate him, not necessarily because the call has real merit. His trust has been shattered, he may never trust again.

It often ends in a freak-out like this one, which is terrible because then it makes him give up a lot of runs and lose, which is just MORE negative reinforcement, further evidence that the entire world is against him, etc. There is an obvious explanation, but that doesn’t make it any less sad to watch.

Oh, and Miguel Cabrera had to leave the game with an ankle injury. Apparently X-rays were negative and it’s ‘just a sprain’, but if it’s an even remotely serious sprain, he may well be done for the season. Why risk injuring the one consistently glorious hitter on the team? The remaining games are essentially meaningless, but Miguel Cabrera’s future is FILLED WITH BEAUTIFUL MEANING, and the latter should definitely not be sacrificed for the former.

Guillen hurt, Armando screwed, same old, same old.

illustration by Samara Pearlstein

So apparently Carlos Guillen’s knee is more busted than we thought. Or not. Or… I don’t know, they are still calling it ‘a deep bone bruise’, but now he is going to have surgery anyways. I guess they need surgery to really get in there, poke around, have a proper look at it so they can be 100% certain that it is in fact a bruise.

ANYWAYS. The surgery means the definitive end of his season.

This is how surprised I am:

As for Armando, I’M SORRY. It’s my fault. I didn’t leave the house until halfway through the game… we all know that the Tigers these days do not win while I am watching, and I watched half of this game, so I should have known that they were going to lose. Plus: Jim Joyce and his mustache were behind the plate, calling balls and strikes. Basically every form of karma was against Armando Galarraga in this one.

Poor lil’ guy went 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks (two of those runs on a single Jake Fox homer), and he got nothing. It’s not Right, it’s not Fair, but it is, alas, how the Tigers roll.

I know they’re on a hot streak of late, but still… the Orioles. Blech. I mean, I guess SOMEone has to lose to them eventually, they do have 50+ wins on the season, but does it have to be the Tigers?

riding the Rhino to victory

illustration by Samara Pearlstein

True blogger story time. I prefer to get post cartoons one of three ways: a) something drawn, scanned, and colored quickly right after a game; b) a cartoon I have used before, or one that was just hanging out on my hard drive because I scanned it in and then forgot about it or something; and c) a cartoon I draw right BEFORE a game, hoping it will still be relevant after the game.

The ideal way to do this, of course, is (a), because you never know what sorts of shenanigans are going to go down, who’s going to have a good or spectacularly bad game, etc. But (b) happens a lot when I’m really busy and don’t have time to go through the whole draw/scan/color thing, or the game runs really late and I’m tired by the end and it’s all I can do to type words that are mostly spelled properly. I usually only do (c) if I know for a fact that I’m going to be tired/I have an exceptionally early morning the next day/I know I’m going to miss a good chunk of the game, and I haven’t posted a new cartoon in a while so I’m starting to guilt myself about it.

HOWEVER, almost EVERY SINGLE TIME I doodle a Terrible Cartoon before the game, the player in the cartoon fails horrifically during the game. Even if I have drawn something generic and innocuous, like Miguel Cabrera swinging a bat– that will be the day when Miggy goes 0-for-5 and also bobbles an easy play at first. Almost without fail. Paws forbid I’ve gone with a cartoon of the starting pitcher, he’ll have to exit early because he’s crying blood on the mound.

Today I had Ryan Raburn riding the rhino done well before the game… and Rhino had a two-run homer that ended up being almost all the Tiger scoring for the night! At Yankee Stadium! And the Tigers won! (Even though Papa Grande did his very best to Fernando us.) YES. Victory! Thank you for bucking the trend, Rhino, and making everyone’s lives easier.

Oh, and while I was away, apparently this happened?

What is this? Fighting the other team, yes, I approve. Fighting each other, NO. Bad kitties!

Manager Jim Leyland didn’t mind the scuffle. In fact, he said, “I kind of liked it.”

The passion. The intensity.

Perhaps Johnny Damon summed it up best: “All I know is dissension breeds winners … we should’ve done it a long time ago.”
Shawn Windsor/Detroit Free Press

This is such a sack of hairballs. If the Tigers had lost that game, this sort of thing would be seen as a sign of a cancer-riddled clubhouse, tempers flaring fruitlessly, all sort of badness. But because they won, it’s a ‘winners’ thing? Please. The one good bit is the fact that Gerald Laird came running to Alex Avila’s defense, because this team really is chock full of kittens, they’re just lil’ fuzzy babies, and SOMEone’s got to look out for them.

terribleness continues

nooooooooooooo

IT’S ALL FALLING APART. AGONY. DESTRUCTION. REALLY TERRIBLE BASEBALL.

Welcome back, Armando Galarraga! Sure, you settled down from the third inning on, but those three runs right out of the gate were a nice way to get back into the swing of things, don’t you think? Yes, yes clearly that is what you think. I am disgusted with your thought process, Armando.

Sure, it’s not like you got any run support whatsoever, but that’s not the point here, now is it. Or, well, it is the point, but only when I’m yelling at the hitters. It’s not the point for YOU, Armando. Like, I appreciate that you were able to stretch yourself into the 8th inning somehow, that’s miraculous and I applaud it, but APPARENTLY Tommy Hunter is some sort of UNSTOPPABLE PITCHING MACHINE and you can’t just GIVE him four runs and expect to get away with it. Who the hell knew? Not us, because as everyone knows the AL West is a fabrication and a lie, just like Mountain Time and fat-free crackers that really do taste like the regular crackers.

And hey, welcome back CASEY FIEN, I didn’t even know you were coming back until I got home tonight and saw that you had already left your stain mark on the game and possibly the mound itself. Three runs of your own and one of Thomas’ that you so considerately brought in for him, like laundry left out in the rain. Well I know you were just trying to be helpful, Casey, but this was laundry that Brad Thomas wanted to ROT. If you had left it we all would have been happier.

Back-to-back home runs too! How exciting you must have wanted things to be for the people at the ballpark! Further proof of your considerate but wildly misguided nature. If only we could figure out how to aim you properly, we would all be so much happier.

Anyways, welcome back to the Majors. We do SO look forward to seeing what sorts of wonderful things you can do with that 10.13 ERA.

a bird-brained win just means that the Tigers brained some birds

photos by Samara Pearlstein

What a day for T. Damon (I won’t use the full name tonight, as he maybe deserves it after this performance). He got his career 2,500th hit early in the game, earning him a standing ovation from the hot sweaty Comerica crowd. He had two hits on the night, the first being a single for that #2,500. The second hit? A walkoff two-run homer in the 11th.

He may always be T. Damon to me, but even I have to admit that that is a heck of a night. And I’m certainly not going to turn my schnozz up at a Tigers win.

Miguel Cabrera, who hit a super sexy two-run bomb to tie the game in the 9th, has been confirmed for this year’s Home Run Derby. I suppose that means we all have to watch it now, as incredibly drawn-out and boring as it will inevitably be. Scott Pickens will be going with him to pitch, according to Jason Beck.

Oh, and Miggy had a kidney infection last weekend? How did I miss that one? I thought it was reported as simple ‘back stiffness’… ‘though a kidney infection would definitely explain that.

Arrrrrrrrmando was sent down to Toledo after tonight’s start. He had just gone 6.2 innings, giving up 10 hits and 3 walks, but only 3 runs, and one of those was an inherited runner that the bullpen brought home. This demotion is basically just a roster shuffle, not necessarily a reflection on his pitching (although it is, a little bit), but Armando was MAD.

“I don’t want to talk to you guys,” Galarraga said before briskly walking out of the clubhouse.
Steve Kornacki/MLive.com

Sick burn, man. Robbie Weinhardt was called up to take his place for one start (?) on the roster ’til after the All Star break, then Armando will be back in Big Cat action. It’s a big step down from a perfect game, though, so his annoyance is in that sense understandable.

Brief moments when I regret the HD:

–the camera focuses on umpire Joe West’s sweat-soaked shirt

–the realization that, with his summer undershirt providing less collar coverage, you can now see Carlos Guillen’s chest hair

–camera pans to the dugout, any manager starts picking his nose

–Ryan Perry’s chinstrap (ugh, just get rid of it already, Ryan, it looks terrible and you aren’t a penguin)

Non-Tigers news:

—Jake Peavy is hurt. He came out of the game after throwing a pitch today, didn’t even wait for the trainer, just stormed off towards the dugout. Ozzie Guillen was sticking his tongue out, apparently because that is how he displays consternation.

–The Racist Logos/Rangers game was interrupted today when a fan fell out of the upper deck while reaching for a foul ball. It was about a 30 foot drop, and he hit four people on the way down, mildly injuring them. The homeplate ump halted play for around 15 minutes. It seems that the guy never lost consciousness and was able to move all his extremities, so it’s definitely not as horrific as it very, very easily could have been.

–The Diamondbacks DFA’d Dontrelle. Read this if you want to be depressed. The Padres released Eric Munson, who had been with their triple-A team.

–The Twinks badly want Cliff Lee. I don’t want this to happen. I mean, I enjoy the idea of depleting the Twinkie farm system, but I don’t like the idea of them acquiring a player who makes them significantly better for the rest of 2010. I like this 2010 Tigers team (mostly), I don’t want them to suffer.

ah ha, THERE’S the run support!

photo by Samara Pearlstein

So it just took a couple of days, that’s fine. I am trying to be patient, serene, and good-natured, just like Armando Galarraga. If the bats want to be unhelpful for Bondo and oddly helpful for Porcello, well, that’s just… fine. It’s fine. Really.

And they needed to be as helpful as possible, because FredFred himself was all kinds of dirty (not in the positive way), and there were FOUR separate errors courtesy of the infield. This one was just never going to happen with one barely eked-out run.

Magglio Ordonez heard the call for help and went 3-for-5 with a homer and a double and a triple and holy Paws, he was actually a single away from the cycle. He had 5 RBI on the day! Austin Jackson heard the call for help and went 4-for-6 with three freakin’ doubles. This is crazy-good. It’s like… crazood. Goorazy.

The number of errors is rather disturbing, especially as two of them came from two of our alleged defensive specialists (Inge and Everett). Then there were two throwing errors by Carlos Guillen, but he’s still settling in over there at second, getting used to playing regularly at the big league level again AND trying to learn how to best play the position, so I am much less inclined to fret over those.

I guess the bullpen also did some good things, picked Porcello up and set him back up on his delicate kitten feet. He threw 95 pitches in 5.1 innings, proving that he watched Armando and learned absolutely nothing. Five relievers came in after him, and not a single one allowed a run. This is upsetting in one way (FredFred departing so early) and heartening in another. As the game DID end with a Tigers win, let us call it a wash.

Magglio and Jackson make the remaining worries go away with their gameplay. Thank cats. We needed another win so badly. And let us be honest, who can feel bad about things when Austin Jackson is out there campaigning as hard as he can for Rookie of the First Half?

ETA: The whole pregame scene, with Armando bringing the lineup card out to a tearful Jim Joyce, was rather remarkable, both because of what it was (a fine gesture by the Tigers, one which they totally did not have to make) and because of the understated way Armando went about it. There were camerafolk maneuvering all around him, so he had to walk slowly, but he didn’t drag it out unnecessarily and he didn’t try to inject unnecessarily ridiculous pomp into the encounter. He didn’t try to make out like he (or Joyce) was some sort of baseball martyr. He just walked out, gave the guy the lineup card, and looked him in the eye. I don’t want to say that this would have been impossible for many other ballplayers… perhaps much more unlikely.

There has been a lot of chatter about a possible reversal of the one-hitter. It does not seem likely to happen. The most we might get is a more serious look at the expansion of instant replay use (or even more umpire conferences… Joyce clearly had the best look at the play, but if the umpires had been able to huddle and talk it over and reverse the call right there because the homeplate or second base ump saw something, we might have been able to avoid this even without instant replay).

That Joyce feels terrible is beyond doubt. That Armando Galarraga is a classy, decent, gracious individual in a sport of foaming-at-the-mouth prima donnas should also now be beyond doubt. I hate that it took something like a stolen perfect game to make that fact known to the greater, non-Detroit public. I guess it’s good that we can gleam one small positive from this mess.

Oh, and Armando got a new Corvette, because GM got a little overexcited. That’s cool though, I understand. When I get fired up about the Tigers, I make a blog post. If I was the president of GM, I could see those impulses being channeled into vehicular giveaways. We each deal in our own way.

Armando Galarraga is screwed over by Jim Joyce, worst ever.

the Scream, by Samara Pearlstein

Armando Galarraga was throwing a perfect game. ARMANDO. GALARRAGA. WAS THROWING. A PERFECT GAME. Austin Jackson had made a spectacular catch for the first out of the inning, a catch that reduced Rod Allen to squeals. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jason Donald hit a grounder between first and second base.

Miguel Cabrera went over to field it. Armando had to hustle to cover first base. He caught the ball and hit the bag with his foot. A step or two later, Donald hit the bag. Jim Joyce, the first base umpire, called him safe.

So not only did Armando lose the perfect game, he also lost the no-hitter. He got the next batter out, and the Tigers had scored 3 runs off of Fausto Carmona, so it was a one-hit shut-out win, but, as Mario Impemba said, “I have never felt this bad after a Tigers game.” Sure, the Tigers badly needed a win tonight, but losing a perfect game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on a close play that replays show went the Tigers’ way is just… just… I can’t even.

It was an awkward play (Miguel probably should have stayed at first and let Carlos Guillen take the ball– but let’s remember that Guillen is still pretty new to second, and Miggy may have felt that he had a better shot at fielding it cleanly), and it was close. But Donald was legitimately out. I say this not as a homer, and not based on my initial impression of the play. I say this after having seen several replays that clearly and obviously show Donald being beaten to first base by Armando. Pretty much everyone who has seen the replay agrees.

The most frustrating thing here is not the fact that Armando lost the perfect game. HE THREW A PERFECT GAME. And he was robbed by an unarguably bad call. That is BEYOND frustrating. That is TERRIBLE. If a baseball action can be called criminal (baseball-criminal?), that call was it.

Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game and this fact will never be reflected in the record books, it will not go down in history, it will probably not be remembered by the majority of baseball fans in a few years, because of this one plainly wrong call.

There are a lot of words I could use here, but I try to refrain from swearing on RotT, so I will just let you chew that statement over.

Miggy spent the last at-bat of the game yelling at Joyce, and immediately after the game ended the Tigers coaches ran out and started screaming at him. I actually thought there was going to be a brawl, they were that angry and riled-up. I can’t say I would have blamed them. That was an inexcusably bad call. A historically bad call! I can’t get over it.

Some things that Armando said immediately after the game:

“I don’t know, I feel real nervous [during the game], I feel good though, that was probably my best game so far and I hope I keep going like that. I dunno what to say… I have to see the replays, but I feel really good.”

“When he [Austin Jackson] got that catch, I mean like come on, you got it…. I was thinking, attack the guys, not too much about the no-hitter. When I see that play I think you got it now, you got it.”

On the postgame show they show the entire team in the clubhouse, standing around half-dressed, watching the replay on a big TV. Everyone is just standing there silently, most of them with their arms folded across their chests. Let’s be honest, this is pretty much completely horrible. Of all the bad calls for an umpire to make… Jim Joyce, how could you. HOW COULD YOU?

LEYLAND

Well it was just an unbelievable performance and that’s the nature of the business, I don’t think there’s much sense really talking about it… his performance was absolutely perfect and it still is perfect.

That’s the nature of the business, the players are human, the umpires are human… TV celebrities like Trevor [Thompson] are human.

You have to remember one thing, with the naked eye I couldn’t tell, neither could any of the guys on the bench… it wasn’t until after a lot of guys had the luxury of looking at the replay that they could see he was out, so I think emotions start to run a little bit higher after that… it was a brilliant performance…

After being asked if he thought it was destiny after Jackson’s catch: I don’t really believe stuff like that… that’s a brilliant catch, just absolutely as good as it gets… that’s just the game of baseball, and that’s probably why it’s a great game.

I mean, you know, I was obviously nervous, you know to be honest with you… you’re pulling so hard for the kid, that’s just something that isn’t done very often, there’s been a couple this year… after Jackson made the catch you start thinking maybe… that’s the way it goes, there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s in the history book as a great performance and that’s pretty much how you look at it…

You could see the faces on the guys in the dugout obviously, everybody aware of what was going on, obviously I was aware of what was going on. The thing we’re losing sight of is we needed to win a game and we won a game… I’m sure Armando is happy about that… this is one of those where it was great for the team, probably even better for him because of the performance. Hopefully we can come out tomorrow and get after it and get another win, we need another one bad….

It’s a crying shame. After looking at the play, and Jim’s a class guy, this is gonna sound crazy, but after looking at the play, he’s gonna look at the play, and nobody’s gonna feel worse than he does. I yelled a little after the game, emotions were running high… you want it so bad for the kid, I don’t think you’re so mad at the umpire as you are mad that the kid didn’t get it, and did deserve it, and I think that’s the big thing.

He also says the team gave Armando a beer shower in the clubhouse after anyways, and were saying that he got 28 outs.

JACKSON

In our mind, you know, that was a perfect game… we’ll take it as that, in our mind it was a perfect game. It ranks right up there with the best [I’ve ever seen].

INGE

I saw it pretty much instantly because obviously your first reaction is to look and see what the call is… I just saw that it was called safe and that’s when I had the reaction I had, I just went straight to the ground.

Let’s not take anything away from Galarraga, that was a tremendous game, I don’t care what it says on paper, that’s one of the best games I ever had the privilege of playing behind…. sad that it comes to this and we have these emotions after.

[In the clubhouse afterwards] it was a lot of tempers, it’s to be expected, when you have a family of guys so close-knit as these guys, you know it’s going to be some tempers flaring, we’re pretty upset. But we pulled it together and made sure it was about Armando when he got in here.

AVILA

At first I was absolutely shocked but right after the call was made, all I was thinking about was the next guy. Finish the game, and we’ll deal with it, deal with the emotions and the rest of it after.

Obviously everyone knows he was out. It’s not easy umpiring, playing this game, that’s just the way it happens. It definitely kind of took the wind a little bit out of the win, but that’s just the way the game is. Umpires are human, and you know you’re going to have missed calls here and there, it just works both ways.

I just told him [Galarraga] that I was very proud of him. One thing that me and Gerald [Laird] try to do is really have a personal relationship with our pitchers so they can feel as comfortable as possible with us. And I’m so proud of him. I can’t… you know, I probably won’t sleep tonight.

I had no hand in anything, he did a great job today… he was tellin’ me that, I guess after the call, he was so nervous the last few outs of the game, he didn’t know how to react. He had a tremendous amount of poise today, a tremendous amount of presence. He pitched with a tenacity that I hadn’t seen in a long time. And he knows that he’s got the stuff to dominate a team now.

ARMANDO some more

I mean, a lot of respect because he [Joyce] feels so bad. He really feels bad, he probably feels more bad than me… everybody’s human… I understand, and I give the guy a lot of credit for saying, hey I really need to talk to you, to say I’m sorry. And that’s not happen really, the umpire apologize.

Gonna be a couple more, I hope so. [said with a grin]

I’m not the kind of person [to get mad or argue]… nobody is perfect, what’re you gonna do? I was smiling that moment [of the play], that situation, I was nervous, I didn’t know what to do, I was celebrating, then looking here, I was like, okay.

He [Joyce] didn’t say anything, his body language say more than a lot of words. His eyes water, he don’t have to say much, his body language say enough.

No, no [I didn’t argue], I was in shock. I was in shock. I tell you before, you don’t know to feel nervous, angry, happy, you don’t know, I don’t know how to react.

We celebrate like we get it, I get it… and I say it before… maybe it’s not in the book, but I can show my son, one time I got a perfect game. I show the CD, it’s not in the book, but I show him the CD.

[I feel] Fantastic. I know myself I throw it, you know. I know you know. I don’t think they’re gonna change it.

traitorDAMON

That was definitely one of the best I’ve seen. I was fortunate enough to see Rogers Clemens pitch against me and strike out 19 guys, but tonight was something special. Not just for our team, but for the guys from Venezuela. There’s been one no-hitter with Wilson Alvarez…

We’re in this together, and Armando went out and stuck with his game plan, got us a victory which we definitely needed. We wish we could be celebrating a bit more. We know what he accomplished. Hopefully now he can build off of this. Hopefully he’ll have another opportunity to get a perfect game, it’s been amazing what’s happened in Major League Baseball this year. I think the pitchers are making a comeback. This could have been number 3 for MLB this year, number one for Venezuela.

Nobody can go and get the ball like Austin. To me he’s the best right now, and he’s just a rookie.

I hate to do it, but I have to give Damon a TON of credit for bringing up the Venezuelan history angle (he’s the first one tonight, including all the broadcasters, to even mention it). He’s not quite right, though: I believe there have been two Venezuelan no-hitters, Alvarez and Anibal Sanchez. But I don’t think there’s been a perfect game yet.

JOYCE

I just cost that kid a perfect game.