Galarraga, who pitched six years in the majors and never had another night like that, probably benefited from Joyce’s blown call, both with his place in Major League Baseball lore, and financially. There have been 24 official perfect games in the history of the game, many thrown by pitchers long forgotten. There has been one 28-out perfect game.
“You know what,” Galarraga, now 42, told The News back in 2020, 10 years after the legendary game, “I’ve been lucky to be not lucky, if that makes any sense.”
ESPN interviews most of the key players from that night, including Galarraga, Joyce, Leyland, Jackson, Donald catcher Alex Avila and shortstop Ramon Santiago, among others. ESPN also interviews members of the Monmouth law school who did a deep dive into that game and MLB precedent, and made a pitch to commissioner Rob Manfred to retroactively give Galarraga the perfect game. Manfred, also interviewed, so far has declined to do that.