- Title: 28 Outs: An Imperfect Story
- IMDb: link
It was the perfect game, except according to Major League Baseball it wasn’t. Framed in part by law professor Lawrence Jones presenting the case before his class to teach an example how rules and laws can sometimes work contrary toward justice, 28 Outs: An Imperfect Story takes a hard look back at Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga‘s 28-out perfect game marred only by a controversial on-field decision that even umpire Jim Joyce regretted just moments after the game. A perfect storm created a historic event for the wrong reasons, keeping Galarraga from being recognized for throwing a perfect game which, to this day, MLB has refused to officially acknowledge.
One of the things director Simon Baumgart‘s documentary points out is Baseball is often more concerned with tradition than getting things right. Everyone on both teams, the umpire, and even the current MLB Commissioner confirms Galarraga was robbed of a record he should rightful hold. However, a perceived threat to other historic events being called into question provides the reasoning by which MLB has no interest in retroactively doing right by Galarraga (who managed to take the whole thing in stride, even to this day), Joyce, and the game over which it presides.
The use of the professor and his students who are able to provide examples of Baseball retroactively making changes both to how a perfect game is classified and events on the field that ultimately changed a game’s outcome is impressive. The use of the Pine Tar Game is a nice touch providing precedent that MLB has stepped in before to rectify an error. Despite the pleas of umpire Jim Joyce and the players and managers who coached and played on both teams that day to undo his mistake, Galarraga is still kept out of the history books. It’s a well-told, and infuriating lesson of the MLB doing the wrong thing for what they argue are the right reasons.
As Jones points out to the students, and his audience, sometimes even with the evidence on your side and a convincing argument, the case can go against you leaving Galarraga as the only pitcher ever to pitch a perfect 28-out game (all 27 outs plus an additional one caused by the blown first-base call), history will remember the game as infamous but not quite perfect.
