Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Life isn’t fair, not even for the perfect

What a shame for Detroit’s Armando Galarraga. Veteran umpire Jim Joyce missed a call and the 21st perfect game in major league history vanished into the mystical land of what might have been. Even worse, the errant call occurred on the game’s 27th out.

This could’ve been one of the worst moments in baseball’s storied history. Instead, it’s one of the finest. Joyce publicly accepted responsibility for his
error and Galarraga was gracious to a fault. Both men dealt with the situation like, well, men. Joyce and Galarraga treated us to an epiphanous event that transcended sports to reflect positively upon the human soul. Predictably, there are calls to obliterate the moment by “fixing” the injustice.

On the
Oakland Press website a respondent wrote, “I think that MLB should give Galarraga a 28-out perfect game.” That writer’s isn’t alone. However, there’s no such thing as a 28-out perfect game. Therefore, awarding a perfect game where one doesn’t exist is wholly unworkable.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was absolutely correct not to reverse Jim Joyce’s call. What would become of the 28th batter? Would he be what George Orwell referred to as an “unperson?” That batter must go somewhere. And that isn’t the only reason to leave matters alone.

Suppose the bad call were made with one out in the fifth instead of two out in the ninth? Should the league office reverse that call? What if the 28th batter, Trevor Crowe, had homered and the Cleveland Indians had rallied to victory? Should that hypothetical outcome be reversed since the Tigers would’ve won without the blown call? There are many worms here that should be left in the can.

The way Armando Galarraga, Jim Joyce and the Detroit fans dealt with this matter is more historic than even a perfect game. Galarraga’s name is forever etched in baseball lore. Not only will he be remembered for the perfect game that wasn’t, but for the grace and dignity he displayed. Galarraga did everything right and yet something went wrong, leaving him without the due result of his effort. Let the play stand anyway. Players make errors, managers miscalculate and umpires blow calls. That’s baseball. In fact, that’s life and it’s time people faced it. Life is never fair in the Utopian sense of the word.

Yet there’s an insatiable human desire to correct injustice and grant everyone they allegedly deserve. This concept was evident at an NAIA golf
championship. Grant Whybark and Seth Doran were locked in a playoff for their conference’s individual title. Whybark had qualified for the national tournament on the strength of his team’s performance. So, on the first playoff hole he intentionally drove his ball out of bounds. Why? Whybark decided Doran deserved a spot in the national tournament.

However, if Doran deserved the title he would’ve won without Whybark’s charity. Whybark actually demeaned his opponent. He assumed that Doran’s abilities were inadequate to the task. That attitude, even when well-meaning, is indicative of our cultural inclination toward an elusive sense of deservedness.

Society must escape the notion that reward is based on the perception of what’s deserved. Someone can do everything right and still not receive the desired result. Behold exhibit A, Armando Galarraga. Eliminating life’s basic unfairness is impossible, and such social engineering would be inadvisable even if attainable.

Doran’s trip to the NAIA National Golf Championship can’t be fully satisfying due to the circumstances. The same is true for Galarraga. Were he awarded a perfect game after the fact it wouldn’t carry equal significance to baseball’s other perfect games.

Grant Whybark manipulated the concept of due recompense. Achievement and success are cheapened when busybodies try to right all wrongs and cure all injustices. Character is built, refined and revealed in overcoming obstacles and adversity. Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce have personified that character with dignity, class and sportsmanship. Leave it at that, and know that life is seldom, if ever, fair.

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