MLB

Umpires are sure to be getting a whole lot more scrutiny in the future after Armando Galarraga's now-famous imperfect game. But there have been more blown calls than just the one by Jim Joyce. Here are 5 of the worst blown calls prior to Galarraga's game.

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It was two seasons ago in a men's wood bat summer league game. It is a good league, with great competition and many former (and at least one current) major leaguers as alumni.

I was base umpire, situated behind the pitcher's mound in a two-man team. Man on first, one out, late in a tied game.

Batter hits a ground ball to the hole in short, throw is made to second for the force out, then the relay is made to first.

Bang-bang play, and I signal OUT! Double play and inning over.

The words in every baseball fan's mind is instant replay.

I know that I've been thinking about it since the most infamous "SAFE" call since Don Deckinger at the 1985 World Series. Instant replay is what is really at stake when somebody discusses Jim Joyce and his mistake.

28 up, 28 down.

That is probably the most apt recap of Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga's "one-hit" shutout of the Cleveland Indians June 2.

# 1 Washington Nationals: Bryce Harper

No matter one’s particular brand of politics, I think we could all agree that Congress does not work as efficiently or effectively as it could.

Now, if I told you that I had a foolproof, instantly applicable means of fixing our legislative body, you’d say: “By God man, why don’t you get to implementing that?!”

Your incredulity would be understandable and reasonable.

So, I ask, why doesn’t this logic translate to baseball?

We knew those guys in recent years.

Bill Hohn, Jim Joyce, C.B. Buckner, Jim Joyce, Lars Diaz, Darryl Cousins, Phil Cuzzi, Joe West, Angel Hernandez, Jerry Crawford, Brian O'Nora, Bob Davidson, Tim McCelland, Ron Kulpa, Dan Iassogna and Doug Eddings.

Those names turned out to be baseball household names. Only difference is those are not baseball players. They are the umpires employed by Bud Selig.

For awhile now, we at 643 Sports have blustered over devoting an entire show to the identification and removal of the worst and least-worthy parts of baseball's Hall of Fame.

So, inspired by the hand-wringing we have done over the induction of the Jim Rice and Andre Dawson ilk, I decided to get the ball rolling and put together a definite list of players that, in my humble opinion, do not deserve Hall of Fame recognition.

Photo credit: TBO.com

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In Major League Baseball's search of their third perfect game in 23 days, Detroit's Armando Galarraga almost had the solution.

Running a perfect game (as in, no baserunners allowed) through eight full innings and the first two outs of the ninth, Galarraga almost created a remarkable Cinderella story for himself and a remarkable record for MLB.