Many of you know what a crazy baseball mom I am. Two sons on four teams; one a right-handed pitcher; one a southpaw. (That’s a lefty for you non-baseball crowd)

I counted and this year, as parents, Todd and I will sit through over 95 games. Not to mention the many the Mitch, our 15 year-old, will ump at the city fields as his summer job.

There will be hits, errors, runs and wild pitches; diving catches, near collisions in the outfield, and several strike outs.

And, there will also be some close calls.

And some bad ones.

A horrible call was made last night during our beloved Detroit Tigers ballgame. The pitcher, Armando Galarraga, was one out away from a perfect game–a real rarity in baseball. (Again, for you non-baseball crowd, this means in every one of the nine innings, the first three batters get out. No one ever gets on base.)

For the 27th out and to clinch that perfect game, the batter hit a ball near second base. The fielder snagged it and threw it to first.

The batter was out.

There was just one slight problem.

The ump called him safe.

What I thought would ensue after such a botched call did.

Fans booed.

Players were incredulous.

The Tigers manager went out and had a rather heated talk with that blind…um…I mean…that first base ump.

But something made me stop dead in my tracks.

Galarraga, the pitcher, just smiled.

No cursing.

No arguing.

No throwing his mitt at the ump.

No scene.

When questioned later he simply said, “I understand that nobody’s perfect, and it’s a hard job. Hopefully (a perfect game) will happen again. But I’ll tell you something: I’m going to keep that CD (of the game), and I’ll tell my son, ‘I got one. It’s not in the book. It’s not official. But I got one.’ ”

People…every one of us should learn to respond with such grace.

Watch it for yourself.

Better yet, call your kiddos over and have them watch it. Whether they are in sports, music, techy stuff or the chess club, they’ll face officials and umps and refs too. And, as parents, we will be there watching in the stands.

How will we respond?

What an amazing ball player.

No, not his pitching arm.

His heart.

“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45