COMMENTARY Right Response To Wrong Call

This is not a column about sports, though baseball frames its message.

This is a column about doing the right thing, about taking personal responsibility, about facing adversity with grace, about forgiveness.

A few days ago, baseball fans were abuzz with the sad saga of Armando Galarraga, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers who was robbed of a perfect game by a bad call. Galarraga had retired the first 26 Cleveland Indians he faced Wednesday, and needed only one more out to achieve one of baseball’s rarest feats - pitching an entire game without allowing an opposing base runner. It’s only been done 20 times in the 135-year history of the professional game.

So when Jason Donald hit a soft grounder to the right side of the infield, it looked like Galarraga’s name was bound for the record books. First baseman Miguel Cabrera gloved the ball and made a strong throw to Galarraga, who was sprinting to cover the bag.

Even though Galarraga cleanly fielded the toss and beat the runner to the base, umpire Jim Joyce immediately signaled safe.

That gave Donald a hit and the Indians a base runner.

The bad call, verified by several television replays, not only cost the pitcher a rare perfect game, but a no-hitter as well.

It also set off a vociferous argument between the Tigers and Joyce and the umpiring crew - a set-to that reignited after Galarragaretired the next hitter to secure a 3-0 win for Detroit.

While a one-hit complete game shutout is nothing to sneeze at in Major League Baseball, it’s not a perfect game. Galarraga was initially angry and bitter about the call. His teammates, too.

Then, a strange thing happened.

A tearful Joyce knocked on the Tigers’ clubhouse door. He’d seen the replay. He was wrong. He wanted to apologize.

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the (expletive) out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game,” Joyce said.

At that point, Galarraga’s anger, if not his disappointment, waned.

The young man handled the potentially uncomfortable situation with an uncommon grace - all too uncommon in this day an age.

He forgave Joyce.

“You don’t see an umpire after the game come out and say, ‘Hey, let me tell you I’m sorry,’” a stunned Galarraga said. “He felt really bad.”

Too bad fans didn’t respond with the same maturity. Joyce, awell-respected veteran umpire, said Thursday that his wife and children had been the subjects of harassment since the end of the game.

“I wish they would direct it all to me,” a weary Joyce said. “They (his family) don’t deserve this.”

And really, neither does Joyce. Yes, he made a mistake.

And he made it in a place for the whole world to see. But unlike far too many others in similar circumstances, he took responsibility for it. He approached the person most hurt by the mistake, looked him in the eye and said, “I’m sorry.” That takes guts.

And it takes a rare kind of character for someone in Galarraga’s shoes to accept the apology and offer forgiveness - especially in the minutes following what must have been a crushing disappointment.

People often refer to what happens on the field of competition as a metaphor for life.

It goes without saying that not everyone has the athletic ability to pitch in the major leagues, or the disposition to succeed as a professional umpire.

But everyone can accept responsibility, demonstrate courage, show compassion and model grace.

Those are qualities worth celebrating, even more than a perfect game.

RUSTY TURNER IS EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NEWSPAPERS