Armando Galarraga perfect game

 

       Whether you are an avid sports fan or not, you most likely have heard the name Armando Galarraga, or at least what happened to him last week.  Before this game, only 26 pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball had ever thrown a perfect game.  What this means is that every single batter either strikes out or is thrown out.  No batter over the course of the game ever makes it to first base by getting a hit or even getting walked.  Every single batter gets out.
       With Armando Galarraga's case, he had pitched a perfect game so far and was now facing the very last batter of the game.  The batter hit the ball within reach of the first baseman, who then threw it to Galarraga to make the final out.  Galarraga caught the ball, and stepped on the bag before the batter.  Could this be the 27th perfect game ever pitched?  Not this time.  Things looked differently to first base umpire Jim Joyce, who called the batter SAFE.  However, as the replays showed, the batter was clearly out.  So, Jim Joyce blew the call and in effect ripped away a perfect game from Armando Galarraga. (Watch It Here)
       While this is an incredible story in itself, the events that transpired after this were truly shocking and provide great spiritual application for us today.
       (1) Never repay evil with evil.  While obviously what Jim Joyce did would not be considered "evil," he clearly had made the wrong call and stripped Galarraga of what was rightly his. But what did Galarraga do after the call was made?  He simply smiled, walked back to the mound, and finished the game. Galarraga could have gotten very angry and said some very negative things to Joyce, but he simply took it, smiled, and finished the game.  Even afterwards when he had seen a replay, Armando just said that Jim Joyce was human, he made a mistake, and that he did not blame him for the bad call. What an incredible attitude! I do not know of a better way Galarraga could have responded to the situation.  I instantly have great respect for Galarraga.
       This reminds us of Luke 6:27-28, "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."  Whether people treat us wrong, do evil to us, misrepresent us, or whatever it may be, let's always do good in return.  I do not know if Galarraga is religious at all, but I know that he wonderfully portrayed an attitude that should be present in all Christians.
        (2) Make Things Right - Repent.  While many umpires stand their ground even when they are wrong, this was not the case with Jim Joyce.  During the game he thought he was correct and stood his ground.  But after the game, the very first thing he did is ask to see the instant replay.  He wanted to see if he was wrong...and he was.  After he saw that he had blown the call and striped Galarraga of a perfect game, he soon called for a press conference.  In this press conference, with obvious guilt and sadness, he admitted that he missed the call, that this was probably the most important call of his career, and he had stripped Galarraga of the perfect game. To make things even worse, the very next day Joyce was to be the home-plate umpire for the game, and the team sent out Galarraga to deliver the batting line-up for his team.  During the exchange, Jim Joyce was very emotional and even cried as the batting line-up was delivered.  This is obviously a man who was deeply sorry for the wrong call he had made and truly cared.

 

Brett Petrillo