Thursday, June 3, 2010

All's Unfair in Love and Baseball

Did you watch baseball last night? Did you see the end of the almost perfect game? We changed channels to be there, to see the moment, to witness baseball history. What we saw instead was heartbreak but also baseball history.

Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga threw a perfect 8 and 2/3 innings. On the last ball the hitter makes contact and runs but Galarraga takes the ball to first and tags him out. The whoops begin but are cut short by the almost instant safe call by umpire Jim Joyce.

Shock everywhere. TV viewers could see it was out but the umpire called safe. Game over. Perfect game squelched. I rolled on the floor in pain. Sympathy. Empathy. Seeing something taken away unfairly.

That’s the part we can all relate to. The unfairness of it all. Galarraga did everything he was supposed to do. He was supposed to be celebrating today. But he’s not. It was unfair. Love and baseball and life are unfair. Marriages should not end especially “perfect” marriages of 20 and 30 years where everything seemed, at least, to be perfect should not end. But they do.

People fall in love with the most unexpected others. People get hurt. There is no instant replay except at the watercolor and at the bar and the family reunion where it’s like a sports talk show when everyone can trash the ex. And kids get hurt too and they are really just innocent bystanders. It’s unfair. All of it. But that’s why we love baseball. Even when it hurts as bad as it did last night it’s still a great game and it is just life.

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