In baseball, 27 batters up and 27 batters down is a perfect game. A perfect game usually occurs less than once every five years. In 2010, two perfect games occurred in May alone. Then in June a third perfect game occurred. But there was a problem. That perfect game had an imperfect umpire. The first base umpire made a bad call. He called the 27th batter safe at first. The batter was actually out. The batter had grounded to the first baseman. He threw the ball to the pitcher at first base. The ball beat the batter by half a step. It was a routine ground out. The players knew it. The fans in the stadium knew it. The fans watching on TV knew it. Everybody knew it! Later, the first base umpire saw the TV replay. "The biggest call of my life," he said sadly, "and I blew it."
