ESPN documentary stars Monmouth U. class fighting for Tiger pitcher robbed of perfect game

In the fall of 2021, when Monmouth University professor Lawrence Jones and 16 students in his “Law and Society” course compiled an 82-page report seeking to correct one of the most infamous mistakes in sports history, their goal was for Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to read it.

Their thoroughly researched petition argued for granting Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga the perfect game he was denied in 2010 when an umpire erroneously ruled that the 27th batter, with two outs in the ninth inning, had beaten a throw to first base.

Manfred did read their report, and although he declined to act on it, what happened next exceeded the students’ wildest expectation. Their work caught the eye of executives at ESPN, who built a documentary around it. The hour-long show, titled “28 Outs: An Imperfect Story,” debuts on the network at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18 and will re-air at 10 p.m. on ESPN2.

ESPN’s production crew spent a day filming at Monmouth University in November 2023, interviewing Jones and a handful of the students as they reunited and recreated some of the classroom discussion that took place during the course.

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“This was one of the best experiences of my life,” said Hannah Latshaw, a student in the class who has since graduated but returned for the documentary shoot. “It felt like my hard work had actually turned into something.”

Galarraga and Manfred, both of whom previously had met with Monmouth’s students over Zoom to discuss their report, also were interviewed for the documentary. So were umpire James Joyce and several players, coaches and Tigers fans.

The premise of the documentary echoes that of the Monmouth students’ report: Could Major League Baseball, leaning on precedent established in at least two other high-profile cases, ever formally “right” what all parties involved agree was a wrong?

“Professor Jones had this reputation: If you took this class, you were going to get published — you were going to do something big,” said Gabriella Griffo, another former student who returned for the filming. “This 82-page document was our book. Little did we know that our book was going to become an ESPN documentary.”

Moving the needle

Jones, a retired New Jersey Superior Court judge who lived in Toms River, has since relocated to New Mexico and now teaches at the University of New Mexico. Last summer ESPN producers contacted him about the project and their desire to feature the report and its authors.

Jones sent word to his former students, most of whom had graduated, and several were able to return to campus for the shoot. It took place in a different classroom — this one is part of the university’s Guggenheim Memorial Library — but the principles of their discussions remained the same.

As Jones explains it, this was a classic “intersection between legal principles and social principles.” It was about fairness, the weight of precedent, the responsibility to redress wrongs, and reconciling the tension between the letter of the law (or rules) and the spirit.

“It’s so much bigger than baseball,” Griffo said.

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Their work touched a chord. During the fall 2021 semester Galarraga, who is retired from baseball, participated in a Zoom with the students from his home in Texas to thank them for their advocacy. Manfred reached out to them last year, doing an hourlong question-and-answer session about the case and other baseball-and-society topics. The story might have ended there, but it continued to resonate in media and fan circles, to the point where ESPN decided to feature it in the network’s popular E60 documentary series.

It's the clearest sign yet that the students’ report is moving the needle.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Jones said. “That’s why so much of this program, in my understanding, is devoted to the Monmouth University students’ work.”

The two-minute preview trailer that has been airing on ESPN opens with a shot of Monmouth’s campus and Jones addressing the students. The full documentary includes extensive comments from Jones, Griffo and Latshaw, as well as fellow student Tyler Kudrick.

“The feedback I got from ESPN is they loved — loved — the students,” Jones said. “They were mature, focused, very analytical. I don’t know for sure, but I think ESPN is supporting their position — we’ll have to see.”

None of them have seen the finished product yet.

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‘I probably would cry’

Although it seems unlikely that Manfred will award Galarraga a perfect game 14 years after the fact, a future commissioner might change course after having viewed the documentary and read the report, and either way, there is a larger lesson here about the law and the power of advocacy.

“You’re not going to win every case, but you never quite know down the line how everything is going to play out,” Jones said. “Even if you don’t win, it sometimes sets the table for further social development on a particular cause or issue. The effort they put in is real, and it still has an ongoing life after the class has ended. You never know what can happen when you take a second look at something.”

Griffo, who is about to start a job with a government contractor in Washington, D.C., plans on having friends over for some pizza Sunday as they watch the show. She thinks maybe, just maybe, the seed has been planted for change.

“If it gets overturned I probably would cry, honestly,” she said. “I would be so excited for Armando Galarraga to get the recognition he deserves. Knowing my classmates and I had a part in helping him get the recognition he deserves would be extraordinary, truly.”

Latshaw, who lives in Wall and is finishing up a graduate degree in forensic psychology, will be watching Sunday with her parents. When she enrolled in Jones’ course, she knew nothing about baseball. Now she could have a hand in changing the sport’s history.

“It was an experience I’ll never forget,” Latshaw said. “So thankful that Professor Jones had this much trust in his students.”

Although “we never thought it would blow up to this point,” she said, the documentary reinforces the course’s underlying lesson for its students.

“You can actually make an impact,” she said, “if you go for it.”

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: ESPN film on Armando Galarraga's robbed perfect game stars Monmouth U.