A lesson in grace

[Dissident]

I apologize that this is off-topic but it seems relevant to all sports. Especially youth soccer.

Many of you may know by now that a young pitcher in baseball was denied a perfect game because of a blown call by an umpire on what should have been the final play of the game. For those that don't know, a perfect game is kind of a big deal - there have only been about 20 of them in over 100 years of professional baseball.

I read an article this morning about the incident that focused on the grace this young pitcher showed in accepting the obviously wrong call.

Here are some excerpts from it:

"As soon as Joyce (the umpire) made the call, the camera cut to Galarraga (the pitcher). And he smiled. That’s all. No argument. No theater. No wild waving of arms. No, he just smiled, a smile that seemed to say: “Are you sure? I really hope you are sure."

"And in that moment when he had a perfect game so unfairly taken away from him, he smiled. In the interview after the game, he simply said that he wasn’t sure about the call but he was proud of his game. When told afterward that Joyce felt terrible about the missed call, Galarraga said that he wanted to go tell Joyce not to worry about it, that people make mistakes."

I think we can all learn a lesson in grace from young Mr. Galarraga.

To those who would like to read the entire article from Sports Illustrated, here is a link:

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/06/0...yce/#more-3517

[deano]

Grace under fire

What a class act Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga is. In the middle of the spot light of sports he showed maturity beyond his years.
I too saw that smile and thought "WOW how could/did he do that?"
The answer to my question was not far away when Galarraga later said with compassion, "we are all human. we all make mistakes."
hats off to you Armando for unknowingly becoming the poster child for Grace* and Understanding in the world of sport and life.
please let me handle my next disappointment with his understanding.

and Jim Joyce, thank you for standing up and humbly saying you made a mistake. in the heat of competition errors occur but very rarely are we treated to a person who will publicly admit that error and apologize for it.
22 years as an umpire has taught Jim Joyce alot but that instant and his response taught the world that pride and arrogance have no place. thank you Jim for being couragous in front of the world

to close i hope we all learned alot about Grace and forgiveness by the actions of these two great men.

*Grace = not getting what we deserve and getting what we don't deserve

[Unregistered]

Imagine the integrity of this pitcher to not lose his cool after that call.

And we see people regularly lose their minds over a blown off sides call?

We can all learn a lot from him.