The Lessons of Imperfection

Old Wahoo and Mrs. Wahoo watched the Tigers' game last night, and we cheered when Austin Jackson made that spectacular catch in center field in the ninth inning to preserve a perfect effort by Armando Galarraga. We thought we were watching history, baseball's 21st perfect game.
Only, of course, we watched something more horrible yet in the end more compelling and more amazing. We saw umpire Jim Joyce miss a call on what would - and should - have been the 27th and final out of the game. We were stunned, outraged even. I called my Mom and Dad, and then called my brother, to talk about the injustice of it all.
The thing is, nobody's perfect. Galarraga realized this the moment Joyce made the call, where the pitcher, instead of yelling and screaming like his teammates, smiled. He was stunned, incredulous, probably, but with that smile he seemed to be saying that it's OK.
His reaction was perfect. I talked to my sons this morning about it. (Joe Posnanski, the best columnist in America, wrote about The Lessons of Jim Joyce today, and how he was going to talk about it with his daughters.) I'm not sure if they understood what  a perfect game is, but they understand disappointment. Everybody does. But not everyone knows how to react to it. I don't always react well to it, but on this night, Galarraga, who had more reason than anybody to be upset, knew just what to do.
He got over it.