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Granholm Cookin’: Mich. Gov. Proclaims Tigers’ Galarraga Threw a Perfect Game

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm just tweeted that she’s overruling an apparently blind Major League Baseball umpire and issuing an official state proclamation declaring that Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga did throw a perfect game.

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The fateful play: In this image taken from video and provided by MLB.com, the Indians' Jason Donald, right, and the Tigers' Armando Galarraga at first base for what should have been the 27th and final out of last night's game (MLB.com via AP)

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm—or GovGranholm as she’s known on Twitter—just tweeted to her 15,066 followers that she’s overruling an apparently blind Major League Baseball umpire, Jim Joyce, and issuing an official state proclamation declaring that Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga did, in fact, throw a perfect game last night against the Cleveland Indians.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock since last night, you know that Galarraga lost his bid for a perfect game on the 27th batter when Joyce called Indian base runner Jason Donald safe at first when he was clearly out. 

Granholm, who is certainly politically savvy enough to know that there is no other topic more important in the state of Michigan today, tweeted soon after the game last night that she was going to make amends, writing, “As governor, I’m issuing a proclamation declaring Galarraga pitched a perfect game!”

Today she kept her promise, issuing a gracious-but-firm rebuttal to Mr. Joyce’s bad call: "Whereas, an umpire's missed call resulted in Armando Galarraga being charged a hit that clearly should have been an out; and, Whereas, the umpire graciously admitted his mistake after the game ended…I…do hereby declare Armando Galarraga to have pitched a perfect game.”

News reports today suggest MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is at least considering reversing the ump’s call as well. In the meantime, even Major League Baseball’s official site isn’t ignoring or sugar-coating the story. Today’s lead headline at mlb.com: “Tigers Take Field Following Ump’s Historic Mistake."

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Steve Tuttle joined NEWSWEEK's Washington bureau in 1987.

Tuttle writes a bimonthly Web column while continuing also to report for the magazine on topics as varied as baseball, politics, and terrorism.  He has contributed personal essays on surviving cancer, the decline of hunting, and the politics of Appalachia.  He has taken on Crocs ("The case for ending our long national nightmare"), Facebook ("Being on Facebook is like volunteering to receive spam"), and Evel Knievel ("If you're a man of a certain age, then you spent a lot of Sunday afternoons building ramps and wearing capes").

In addition to his editorial duties, Tuttle oversees logistics for NEWSWEEK's coverage of the Democratic and Republican national political conventions, as well as the Olympics.

Tuttle graduated in 1983 from the College of William and Mary with a degree in English literature. He previously worked at The Recorder, a tiny paper deep in the hills of western Virginia.

He is the only NEWSWEEK employee who had a pet bear as a child.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

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