Last night was a big night in baseball. Detroit Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga was throwing a perfect game. It would have been the 21st perfect game in baseball history, and the third this year. But the umpire, Jim Joyce, blew a call. He called a batter safe when he clearly was not. Not maybe, not sort of. But absolutely no way was the batter safe. So, Galarraga’s perfect game was no more because of this terrible, awful, horrible call by the umpire.
“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the (stuff) out of it,” Joyce said, looking and sounding distraught as he paced in the umpires’ locker room. “I just cost that kid a perfect game.”
So what happened? Detroit still won the game. The umpire apologized. He cried. He said he was wrong.
Everything turned out great but for the fact that Galarraga doesn’t ‘technically’ get a perfect game on his scorecard. Folks on the team said you know, everyone is human, everyone makes mistakes. It’s ok. Let’s all hug and go home.
Law is not baseball.
Criminal defense lawyers aim for a perfect game every time we go to court. We’ve practiced, set up our strategy, know who our players are and the other side’s weaknesses and strengths. We go out ready to play, ready to win. And, there are times when we are on top of it, we are pitching a perfect game. But we only have so much control over how the game plays out. We, too, have umpires who make lousy calls. And, when our umpires make bad calls, they don’t acknowledge and they certainly don’t apologize.
When our games go awry, people go to prison. They lose liberty and sometimes they lose life. We have the benefit of instant replay, transcripts of what was said, precedent to rely on, but despite all of that, our umpires are people who make mistakes. They are human. But when they screw up, we don’t all hug and go home.
Law is not baseball.
What would happen if an umpire was having an affair with a member of the other team? Would they let that umpire ref that team’s games? Probably not. It wouldn’t look good, would it? If a player was batting .128 and had an ERA of 4.8, you wouldn’t let him start, would you?
Most criminal defense lawyers have stood in the well or at the bench and had it out with the umps in our games. We’ve shown them why they are wrong. Sometimes its clear as day and yet, we have to wait until our clients are convicted before we can get a final ruling. Our perfect game is ruined. And the consequences are dire.
On appeal we see the aftermath of the bad players, the lawyers who haven’t prepared and who didn’t know the other side’s strengths and weaknesses. “Pick a different game” we think. “Why did he get played at all?” Our mistakes are not easily rectified.
Law is not baseball. But if only it was.
