This just seems like one of those situations where the best course of action would have been to apologize to the Heat, fine the Hawks and move on. Treat a mistake at the scoring table the same as you would a blown call by a referee. Them's the breaks. Try to prevent it from happening again, but human error is part of the deal.
That's not how the NBA sees it, and now unfortunately the league has set a bad precedent. Major League Baseball announced Monday that it's ordering Game 6 of the 1985 World Series replayed from the point of umpire Don Denkinger's blown call at first base on Jorge Orta's grounder in the ninth inning. The Series will revert to the St. Louis Cardinals leading the Kansas City Royals 3-2, and the Cards up 1-0 with one out in the bottom of the ninth of Game 6.
Since every player on both teams has retired, MLB said the Royals and Cardinals could use whatever players they want to fill out the rosters. They'll replay the rest of the ninth inning before the regularly scheduled Royals-Cardinals game in Kansas City on June 28, and if the Royals win, Game 7 would take place before the next day's game.
The commissioner's office also announced that since the original Game 7 from 1985 had been scrubbed from the books, Joaquin Andujar, who was thrown out of that game for charging at Denkinger, would no longer be suspended for the first 10 games of the 1986 season. So that's nice.
"We have a second chance now," said Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who was 3 when the disputed game was played. "We just have to make the most of it."
Even more exciting, the NFL has announced that the 1925 Pottsville Maroons will play the Chicago Cardinals to finally settle that season's league championship, with either team able to use whatever players it wants.
This column is even benefiting from the new, casual view of history. Thanks to a disputed copy edit, I've been granted the right to republish my 2002 baseball predictions, including the Cardinals winning the World Series over the Seattle Mariners. Since circumstances have changed, I'll be able to substitute the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants. That'll look a lot better in the archives.
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About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. You can e-mail him at king at salon dot com or visit his Facebook page.
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