FAMILY HISTORY "Life's Game of Sportsmanship"

FAMILY HISTORY - Sportsmanship -10 June 2010
Thank you Armando Galarraga! You are my hero - and so is Jim Joyce. Until last week, I had lost all faith in anyone associated with baseball. I am sorry to admit I had begun to see all of them as drug using and abusing liars and cheaters. I am happy to admit that I was wrong!
Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga pitched the perfect game - if it weren't for a bad call on the part of the umpire Jim Joyce. It must have been a huge disappointment, yet Galarraga is a true sportsman. He accepted the bad call as one of life's vicissitudes. "Nobody's perfect."
Umpire Jim Joyce acknowledged blowing the call and was in tears as he faced Galarraga on the playing field.
There is a question whether some correction or adjustment to the official record book could or should be made. I have no answer for that. I do know that the incident and the names of both Galarraga and Joyce need to be prominently recorded in "Life's Game of Sportsmanship!"
Clarence E. Thatcher Sr. was the epitome of sportsmanship. We, his sons and daughters, learned what that meant from our dad as we lived with confidence and security in a home where fair play was the rule. We recognized and understood its meaning and value before we could spell the words: Honesty; Interity; Respect. Thatcher put more faith and belief in sportsmanship than in any legal or religous doctrines. He was the consummate representative of "Do unto others."
It was difficult to learn, growing up, that some people did not live by the same rules. It was shocking to find children who blatantly lied and cheated. My sense of security and confidence was undermined and my fath in mankind diminished by their actions, so I began to take particular note of individuals who exhibited the quality I so admired in my dad.
It is my hope that people of all ages, player or spectator, come to recognize the valuable meaning of 'sportsmnship' as a result of Armando Galarraga's and Jim Joyce's unfortunate baseball incident.
Seedsd of Hope/Nancy y Te\\