America's Pastime...
Perfect Game- Ref Blows It - watch the play!
As I was listening to the radio this morning, they were talking about how a referee blew a perfect game. Picture this- 9th inning, 2 outs, and a grounder between the first and second basemen. The first baseman fields the ball and throws it to the pitcher which was covering the bag and CLEARLY beats the runner. Third out, game over, Perfect Game, right? Wrong. The referee blew the call.
America's Pastime? It's not hard to believe that with all the hoopla of the NBA Finals, with the Lakers and Celtics and all of their history, and the Stanley Cup Finals, that I totally missed this, and it happened to my favorite team!
So this got me thinking- what would be worse than pitching 9 innings of PERFECT baseball and knowing you got the last out, all to have a referee take it all away from you? Armando Galarraga of the Detriot Tigers knows this feeling. But the best part- he didn't whine, cry, or get upset about someone else taking history away from him. He was quoted as saying "It is what it is", and that was about the extent of his emotions. If you watched the video, he even smiles when he is going back to the mound.
But good things happen to good people. The very next day, GM awarded his sportsmanship with a Cherry Red Corvette. He may not be in the record book for a perfect game, but when the game wasn't perfect, his attitude shined. I think we could all learn a thing or two from this situation. There are times in life when you are going to be down and out. Times when you feel like the rug was ripped from under your feet. No, you probably won't get a shiny new car, but just know that other people are paying attention to how you react.