Q.  What would happen if they replayed the game?

A.  The commissioner of baseball would overrule Jim Joyce's decision, declare Donald out at first, and the game would resume from that point.

This would mean that all plays subsequent to the original umpire's decision would be cancelled.

Resuming from the point of the overrule, in this case, would be resuming just after the 27th out had occurred.  This would mean that Crowe would not come to the plate for the fourth time.  The players would (in theory) take their positions, the umpire would call an out at first base, and the players would leave the field since it happened to be the 27th out.

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Q.  Could they replay the game?

A.  This is what in fact occurred on July 24, 1983.

With the Royals down by two runs in the top of the 9th, with two out and a runner on first, George Brett hit a game-LOSING home run :- ) to put the Royals ahead 5-4.

Billy Martin protested the illegality of Brett's bat; Tim McClelland called Brett out on the play, and the Yankees won.

..............

The commissioner of baseball overruled the umpire's call, ruled that Brett was not out, but safe, and the game resumed from that point.  Dan Quisenberry knocked down the Yankees 1-2-3 and the Royals won.

...............

The commissioner could overrule Jim Joyce's call at 1B, resulting in Donald being not safe but out, and Galarraga would have his perfect game back.  Throughout history, it would be referred to as the 21st (IIRC) perfect game, and nobody would choke on that.

We're sure that Jim Joyce would be immensely relieved to see that occur.

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Q.  Is Joyce's call of a fundamentally different nature than McClelland's was?

A.  I don't know, don't care, and nobody else should care either.

In the 1983 game, MacPhail appealed to "the spirit of" the rulebook in overruling a decision that only a home plate umpire can make.  There is a higher law than the letter of the law, that higher law being "Justice." 

Specific laws exist to enforce Justice in the generic application, but you'll never see 100% of specific applications match the basic template.  Human judges participate, because generic law cannot automatically (without human intervention) produce justice in all specific applications.

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Q.  What about Joyce stepping up and apologizing?

A.  It defuses the tension over Joyce and funnels it onto instant replay.  If Joyce were defending himself, then right now we'd be focused on prosecuting him.  Fortunately, we're not.  Good on him.

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Q.  How long until instant replay?

A.  That's the great thing about the Galarraga play.  It won't be long now.  It always takes something like this for stupid laws to get changed.

Let the players on the field decide who wins.

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Q.  Where is SSI on the play at 2B on Wednesday?

A.  I'd much rather that the system corrected all such plays.  I'd be happier if instant replay had existed all year, and if in the scheme of that system, the Twins had gotten an overrule on Wednesday.

But the M's suffering more than their share of problems from "the human element," this one just comes out of their stockpile of bad breaks.  I don't apologize for Wednesday night for one second.

The other day we had a runner score from 1B on a single, and today we have a runner score from 2B on an infield hit, without an error.  Whale of a play by Langerhans, wasn't it? 

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Cheers,

Dr D