Baseball's Life Lesson

Many people saw it. I tuned in late but was able to catch the last inning and enjoy what everyone thought was going to be a rare perfect game for Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. Then what happened next will go down in the lore of Baseball history. While covering first base on a ground ball for what would have been the final out, Umpire Jim Joyce ruled that the runner beat the throw, thus ending the perfect game. No one could believe it. It was close, probably a closer play than it should have been. But still on a play like that usually the runner is out. But not here not in this situation. Now I am a Tigers fan so naturally I am a little biased. Okay I said there was no excuse for a major league umpire to miss a call like that in a situation like that. Baseball deserves better!

Joyce was convinced even after the final out was recorded that the runner beat the throw. Why? I don't know, but he was. Fans booed, Fellow teammates, and manager Jim Leland berated him during and immediately after the game. The Joyce watched the replay to see for himself, the telling evidence and it was right there in front of him. He blew it. He missed the call and deprived this young man something that some of the greatest pitchers in the game have never achieved. He was wrong and he knew it now for sure. But instead of doing what any umpire could have done, not comment, and insist he was right from his perspective, or make any other excuse. He sought out Galarraga and apologized! Then he went in front of the media, and admitted his mistake, and how he felt not only for Galarraga, but about his job integrity.

But here is the great part, when asked in a television interview afterward, Galarraga himself said that he appreciated Joyce coming to apologize. "That doesn't happen," he said, so you know he was sincere. When asked in his post game press conference, Manager Jim Leyland said, it's unfortunate, but 9 times out of 10 he gets that call right. He's a good umpire, one of the best in the game in fact and this whole situation is just unfortunate.

As Joyce went out the next day to call the game he could not hold back the tears. They came somewhat out of returning to the scene, or the fact in a gesture to demonstrate good sportsmanship to the fans, that Galarraga brought out the line up card to him, and partly out of the pride he truly takes in his job.

I know that in the end I am one of the worst offenders in taking sports too seriously and this was in fact just a baseball game. But on a stage as big as this, these men gave us an example of forgiveness and grace that many of us Christians could hope to model. How many times have we been angered by someone in the church for reasons far less egregious? How many times have we as followers of Jesus not been able to show the same love and forgiveness to our sisters and brothers in Christ, over what? Because we disagreed at a meeting. Because someone sat in "their" pew or because they may have heard something in worship that made them uncomfortable, so they chose to be offended.

This baseball game gave me an opportunity, to connect my passion for sports with my walk with Christ. How can I live up to this example of forgiveness and grace? How can we all learn from our mistakes, forgive, and reconcile to one another, and continue on that journey together. Think of Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga, and God shows us, it may be easier than we think.