David Schoenfield authored an interesting article on last night’s Cardinals and Atlanta Braves Game.
“Did I say bad call? Atrocious? Abominable? Disgraceful? How do you properly sum up what happened in the bottom of the eighth inning when umpire Sam Holbrook raised his right arm and all hell broke loose?
If you watched the game, you know what happened: The Braves trailed the Cardinals 6-3 and had runners on first and second when Andrelton Simmons popped out to shallow left field. Shortstop Pete Kozma drifted about 70 feet beyond the infield dirt … and suddenly peeled off, the ball plunking harmlessly onto the grass in front of Matt Holliday. The Braves had the bases loaded and the Ted was rocking with noise.
So Holbrook’s name will now go down in history alongside Don Denkinger and Richie Garcia, the umps on the Jorge Orta play in the 1985 World Series and the Jeffrey Maier/Derek Jeter home run in the 1996 American League Championship Series, respectively.”
I also remember June of 2010, when Armando Galarraga of the Tigers lost his bid for a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning on a call that first base umpire Jim Joyce later admitted he blew. First baseman Miguel Cabrera cleanly fielded Jason Donald’s grounder to his right and made an accurate throw to Galarraga covering the bag. The ball was there in time but Joyce signaled the runner safe.
The crux of my thoughts comes from the fact Major League Baseball denied the Atlanta Braves’ protest of a controversial infield fly call in last Friday’s wild-card playoff because it was deemed a judgment call and therefore not subject to appeal. Basically almost all of the above incidents were appealed to a higher authority. In a true lesson for all us, it’s what I call the ‘Too Fricking Bad’ (TFB) rule.
Unless one somehow lived in old Biblical days, the TFB rule has generally applied to nearly 99.99999% of the earth’s population. Unless your like Moses with a magical stick or Jesus who could turning water into wine or raising the dead, when praying for appeal to higher power, most of us will get a TFB response, liken it to the old song “That’s Life.”
In a nutshell, if we understand the causes of sufferings (envy, hate, covetousness, etc.,) we can rectify it. The answer to suffering is ‘Unconditional Love.’ Most people who create great errors understand they made personal choices which caused themselves pain. Ultimately, they really want to be restored to love happiness.
In the case of the Braves, yeah ok … Umpire Sam Holbrook blew the call. But the Braves did not lose because Mr. Holbrook blew the call. They lost because they played a lousy game. The fact that they played a lousy game should not be overridden by a higher authority. We, in our lives, should not expect the same.
Living this life means suffering. So rather than praying to our higher authority for any and everything to be overturned, we should pray for guidance and unconditional love. It is through unconditional love that we become more humane and really find the true value of every religion.