NEW YORK // The imperfect game stands.
An umpire's tears and admission that he blew a call failed to move Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, to award Armando Galarraga the perfect game he pitched. The play and its aftermath quickly became the talk of the sports world and beyond, even to the White House.
Selig said Major League Baseball will look at expanded replay and umpiring, but did not specifically address umpire Jim Joyce's botched call on Wednesday night that cost Galarraga the perfect game - 27 batters up, 27 batters down. No hits, no walks, no errors.
A baseball official familiar with the decision confirmed to The Associated Press that the call was not being reversed. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that element was not included in Selig's statement.
Joyce said he erred on what would have been the final out in Detroit, when he called Cleveland's Jason Donald safe at first base. The umpire personally apologised to Galarraga and hugged him after the Tigers' 3-0 win.
Joyce was the home plate umpire on Thursday night, and Jim Leyland, the Tigers manager, picked Galarraga to present Detroit's line-up before the game to set up the emotional meeting with Joyce. They shook hands, and the umpire gave the pitcher a pat on the shoulder.
"I didn't want this to be my 15 minutes of fame. I would have liked my 15 minutes to be a great call in the World Series. Hopefully, my 15 minutes are over now," Joyce said.
Bad calls are part of the mix in sports, but something about this one - the chance to right a wrong, the emotions of everyone involved - reached a new level. "I've got to say we'll never see it again in our lifetime," Joe Girardi, the New York Yankees manager said.
Joyce, a longtime umpire with a solid reputation, declined to comment on MLB's statement after Thursday's game, saying he hadn't read it.
What Selig said was: "There is no dispute that last night's game should have ended differently."
"There's no doubt he feels bad and terrible," Galarraga said. "I have a lot of respect for the man. It takes a lot to say you're sorry and to say in interviews he made a mistake. I'm sad, but I know that I pitched a perfect game. The first 28-out perfect game."
Denied the 21st perfect game in history, the record third this season and the first for a Detroit pitcher, Galarraga still got a prize. The Tigers and Chevrolet presented him with a new Corvette.
Opinions poured in from all over, on both sides. "I was thinking if the umpire says he made a mistake on replay, I'd call it a no-hitter, perfect game. Just scratch it," Tony La Russa, the St Louis Cardinals manager, said. "If I was Mr Selig, in the best interest of the game, the guy got it and I'd give him his perfect game."
To others, rewriting sports history would open a Pandora's Box.
"It's in the books and, unfortunately, that's the way it goes," Jim Qualter, a fan, said at Fenway Park in Boston.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said: "I hope that baseball awards a perfect game to that pitcher." Told that MLB were not going to reverse it, he joked, "We're going to work on an executive order."
Alyssa Milano, the actress, tweeted: "Personally, I agree with Selig on this one. Part of the game [as it is played now] is human error."
The umpire who made perhaps the most infamous call of all thought Selig got it right.
Don Denkinger's missed call in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series - like Wednesday night's play, it involved a pitcher covering first base - helped cost the Cardinals a chance to clinch it. St Louis later lost to the Kansas City Royals.
"No, you can't change it," Denkinger told the AP in a telephone interview. "It was Jim's call, and it's got to go down that way. You can't run from it, it's a part of life."
* AP
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Brief scores:
Manchester United 4
Young 13', Mata 28', Lukaku 42', Rashford 82'
Fulham 1
Kamara 67' (pen),
Red card: Anguissa (68')
Man of the match: Juan Mata (Man Utd)
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
