Why Can't Real Life Be Like Baseball?
For all its steroids and scandals, when it counts America's pasttime seems to offer us a better example than politics. Witness the class act in Detroit yesterday, when the crowd cheered an umpire whose blown call robbed their hometown boy of a perfect game. No one doubts that Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga beat Indians' batter Indians' Jason Donald to first base for what should have been the 27th straight out in the game. After seeing the replay, so did umpire Jim Joyce, who manned up to his mistake -- an honest mistake -- and expressing his regret that it had robbed Galarraga of a bit of history.
But it didn't end there. The next day Galarraga was chosen to carry the Tigers lineup out to home plate in an act of grace toward Joyce. There the pitcher shook hands with a plainly emotional umpire, and two men showed the nation that true sportsmanship may not be quite as dead as the cynics would have it.
Compare that with Washington's most recent example: a White House awards ceremony for former Beatle Paul McCartney. It wasn't enough for *Sir* Paul McCartney to accept the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. On foreign soil, in the East Room of the White House, McCartney remarked, “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a President who knows what a library is."
Then again, McCartney grew up without the benefit of baseball.
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Re: Why Can't Real Life Be Like Baseball?
Even though my boys are going to require some persuading, Bill, the correct answer is (c).*
*The question? "Would you rather grow up to be just like (a) the President, (b) the richest and most famous rock star of all time, or, (c) or a simple, hard-working ump whom one week ago nobody had heard of and one week from now nobody will remember.