Thursday, June 3, 2010

Baseball and Twitter and please see the previous post about little league

My husband came tearing into the bedroom last night (simmer down) and grabbed the remote yelling "You've got to watch this!" He hit channel 32 then went on to explain to me that Armando Galarraga was two batters away from pitching a perfect game (and everything that entails). So we watched, together, as Jim Joyce made The Call Heard Round The World.

"Armando, you were robbed." I immediately Tweeted.

I happened to have Twitter pulled up at the time and there is something very exciting about being on Twitter when things like this happen. It's nowhere near the excitement/disappointment that must have been palpable at Comerica Park last night, but it was pretty fun to see Twitter go crazy with posts about something I had just witnessed.

I didn't watch any post-game coverage, I could well imagine what every sports talking head would be saying. But I was pleased to see the quote from umpire Jim Joyce in the paper this morning. (I still think Joyce looked physically ill immediately following the play, like he knew right away he'd made a bad call.)

And now I'm going to borrow a Facebook post from a friend, Jeff Gilbert, a reporter for WWJ and probably one of the nicest people you'll ever meet:

We may have missed seeing a perfect game last night, but we did see one of the best life lessons ever! In a world where people "spin" things, hide from the media, and sometimes directly lie, an umpire wasted no time in taking responsibility, and apologizing. And a young pitcher who was robbed forgave him with a smile.

Well said, Jeff. And I couldn't help but contrast this with the little league situation I had witnessed just two nights earlier where parents/coaches of little boys were yelling at each other and harassing teenage umpires "WHY was that a strike? WHY?" all so their kid could "win."

Thank you, MLB, for showing us what winning is really about. Grace and dignity under pressure and owning up to your mistakes.




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