Every sports fan now knows of an event that will become tagged as THE CALL, the greatest umpiring mistake ever made.

Yesterday, the Detroit Tigers’ pitcher had a perfect game going with two out in the Ninth. The batter hit a slow roller to second, a tricky but not unusual situation which requires the pitcher to cover first base while the second baseman fields the ball. The fielders played their part and the throw reached the pitcher in good time by baseball standards, which means the runner’s foot was still in mid-air a few inches above the base, a moderately close play but not all that close.  And the umpire signaled “SAFE,”  blowing the call, the perfect game, and the no-hitter.

The players were so numbed with disbelief that they barely argued, especially because the instant replays showed beyond doubt that the batter was out.  But baseball does not allow reference to replays, so the call stood. The umpire defended himself until he saw the replay after the game. When he realized the magnitude of his error, he was numbed by depression and remorse, aware that he had deprived the pitcher of a lifetime achievement, and also that he personally is going to spend the rest of his life as an object of derision and scorn:  “Joyce [the umpire] spoke with a group of reporters for six minutes. Short of a life-and-death circumstance, I cannot recall being involved in a more gut-wrenching interview. The self-loathing was that intense.”

No one expects Official Baseball to reverse the call, though the situation is readily curable because it is so unique. As sportswriter Jon Paul Morosi put it:

For all those who are worried about setting a precedent that changes the nature of baseball, I believe you would get unanimous support for the following rule change: If a pitcher is wronged out of a no-hitter or perfect game by an umpire’s call with two out in the ninth inning, and the umpire himself almost immediately declares that the call was incorrect, the pitcher should be awarded with what is rightfully his.

Morosi is clearly right.  But it is characteristic of large institutions that they become so concerned about their perceived dignity that they refuse to acknowledge error even when that error is obvious to all, harms the innocent, and will do long term damage to the institution itself because it makes its managers look like a bunch of clowns who are more concerned about a twisted perception of their own self-regard than about truth and justice.

So the odds are that the Lords of Baseball will shake their heads and mumble about the integrity of the game while persisting in a course of action that will make them objects of derision along with the umpire because any fool can see that a bad call on a play that should end the game does not involve the same problems as one made earlier in the contest. A sensible institution recognizes when a situation is sui generis, and when the integrity of the game demands that error be reversed.

The FCC should study this situation, and learn. The agency has blown the call on Net Neutrality, and any fool can see it.  Persisting in their present course will cause its members to spend their lives being pointed to on the street as the people who ruined the Internet.  So are FCC commissioners smarter than the Lords of Baseball?  This is not usually regarded as a high bar, but we shall see.