Blown calls and life

A perfect game. So rare in baseball. So rare in life.

By now you perhaps know about the bad call robbing Armando Galarraga of a perfect game: The throw beat the runner. Galarraga deserves to be recognized as the 21st player in 135 years to pitch to perfection.

His accomplishment deserves to memorialized in the Hall of Fame, as all perfect games are. But it won't be, because his perfect game was taken away with a bad call on the last out.

Bad, bad call. Upsetting, especially if you play for the Detroit Tigers and especially if you were Armando Galarraga.

However, instead of being known for pitching a perfect game, Galarraga will be remembered for something greater: his response to the injustice.

Did you see it? Umpire James Joyce called the runner safe, and Galarraga smiled.

We know how other players might have responded. We've seen entire teams collapse and championships lost in the aftermath of a bad call. (St. Louis Cardinals, 1985)

But Galarraga just smiled -- albeit a sardonic "you've got to be kidding me" smile --and then he went back to the mound and got the last out. Even after the game, he refused to lash out at the umpire's mistake.

The next day he met James Joyce at home plate with forgiveness in his heart. James Joyce cried. A man's man, crying at the forgiveness given by someone whom he had hurt with a blown call. Wow.

Here's what I know. You and I will experience bad calls in life.

Things we don't deserve. Times when we are just on the verge of "greatness" and something happens to blow it all.

Blown calls are a fact of life. They come at us in different ways: The boss who gives credit to the wrong guy, the teenager who blames everyone else for their own insolence, the church member who finds fault in everything the pastor does.

The result is that sometimes you get short-changed. You deserve credit, but credit doesn't come your way, thanks to someone else's bad judgment.

It's happened to each of us before, and it will certainly happen again.

In Galarraga, we see how to respond. You don't lash out. You don't lose your heart.

You smile and go back to work. You do your job with excellence, even when you have to deal with a little unfairness along the way.

Galarraga didn't get the perfect game he deserved. But he did show fans everywhere how a sportsman plays the game.

It reminds me of how Paul praised the believers in Thessalonica for their example in the face of suffering (I Thessalonians 1:7,8), "And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out form you not only in Macedonia and Achaia - your faith in God has become known everywhere."

Today, you have a chance to show your corner of the world how a believer responds ... to setbacks, to struggles, to criticism, to conflict, to disappointment, to injustice.

You don't lash out. You don't lose your head. You smile and keep doing your job with excellence. Others will notice.

Just some thoughts for a Wednesday.