I love the game of baseball.  Today in Detroit, something extraordinary almost happened.  Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers almost became the third pitcher in professional baseball to pitch a perfect game in one season.  Over the 135 year history of baseball, only 20 pitchers have achieved this milestone.  The perfect game in modern baseball is a flawless pitching performance by an athlete.  It requires the elimination or “retiring” of 27 batters for 9 complete innings of play.  It also depends on the flawless defensive performance of the pitcher’s teammates on the field. There are no hits, no runs and no errors.  Period.  On May 9th 2010, Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays achieving the first perfect game of the 2010 season. On May 29th 2010 Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched the second perfect game against the Florida Marlins.  Armando Galarraga almost pitched the third perfect game against the Cleveland Indians.  The perfection was derailed due to a blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce in the ninth inning.