Official MLB Recognition of Armando Galarraga's Perfect Game

To: Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB)

We the undersigned, baseball fans and proponents of justice and fair play, hereby express our resolute desire to have MLB officially recognize Detroit Tiger Armando Galarragas performance on June 2, 2010, against the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan, as a perfect game by MLB standards for the following reasons:

BECAUSE on said date, Armando Galarraga, pitched to and retired twenty-six (26) consecutive Cleveland Indian batters according to MLB official rules, resulting in only one more out to be recorded before officially ending the baseball game, with the Detroit Tigers leading the Cleveland Indians three (3) runs to zero (0) in the top half of the ninth inning;

BECAUSE the twenty-seventh (27) batter of the game Cleveland Indian Jason Donald hit a ground ball between first and second base, that Detroit Tiger Miguel Cabrera fielded and subsequently threw to Armando Galarraga, who was covering first base and cleanly caught said throw and tagged first base before Jason Donald reached it;

BECAUSE MLB Rule 7.08(e) states in relevant part:

Any runner is out when (h)e fails to reach the next base before a
fielder tags him or the base, after he has been forced to advance
by reason of the batter becoming a runner...;

BECAUSE first base umpire James Joyce incorrectly ruled that Jason Donald had beaten Armando Galarragas catch and tagging of first base, resulting in a call of safe and causing the game to continue with two outs in the ninth inning;

BECAUSE instant replays of said play clearly and definitively showed that Armando Galarraga had caught the baseball from Miguel Cabrera and tagged first base before Jason Donald reached first base, necessitating that Jason Donald be ruled out according to MLB Rule 7.08(e);

BECAUSE first base umpire James Joyce, himself, admitted after reviewing instant replays of said play IMMEDIATELY after the games conclusion that his call of safe on Jason Donald was INCORRECT and that he (James Joyce) took away the perfect game that Armando Galarraga had rightfully earned;

BECAUSE according to an article posted on MLBs own official website (www.mlb.com) on June 3, 2010, Jason Donald, himself, admitted, Yeah, I was out, with regard to said play and that Donald suspected as much all along;

BECAUSE according to MLB Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Seligs official statement of June 3, 2010, [T]here is no dispute that last night's game should have ended differently; and

BECAUSE Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig has the inherent authority, as MLB Commissioner, to overrule umpire James Joyces incorrect safe call on Jason Donald - changing it to out - and officially recognize Armando Galarragas performance of June 2, 2010, as a perfect game.


For all these reasons, we the undersigned hereby demand the following:

THAT the Commissioner of MLB change umpire James Joyces call of Jason Donald of being safe to out, as such is supported by actual events and the admissions of all of the aforementioned parties, including the Commissioner, himself;

THAT the Commissioner of MLB deem that said baseball game therefore ended with that proper and legal out call on Jason Donald, and that no statistics further accumulated from that point on in the ballgame; and

THAT the Commissioner of MLB, and MLB, itself, formally and officially recognize that Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game against the Cleveland Indians on June 2, 2010.