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Baseball umpire's imperfect call brings home winning examples of sportsmanship
We received a major league lesson in humility and grace last week from two men on opposite sides of a ninth-inning play at first base in Detroit. Armando Galarraga, a Venezuelan pitcher in his second year with the Tigers, had kept 27 Cleveland Indian batters from getting on base and was one out away from a perfect game -- a feat achieved just 20 times in more than a century of professional baseball, and never by Detroit. Then, on an infield grounder, umpire Jim Joyce called the runner safe -- a goof that brought tearful remorse when he saw a post-game video showing it wasn't even close. Baseball's commissioner declined to reverse the call, though he praised the pitcher, fans and apologetic ump for showing dignity. Indeed, Galarraga's on-field smile and postgame comments immediately eased the tension. Crusty manager Jim Leyland later tried to console the anguished umpire and publicly urged fans to be compassionate, too. The next afternoon, he sent Galarraga to home plate with the lineup card, which the young pitcher graciously gave Joyce with a handshake. The veteran umpire teared up again as the crowd applauded. The classy displays dazzled sportswriters, talk radio hosts and even the White House press secretary. "To watch an umpire take responsibility, to watch a pitcher do what he did -- that type of sportsmanship exhibited was tremendously heartening," presidential aide Robert Gibbs told reporters the next day. "Somebody made a mistake, somebody accepted that apology. It's a good lesson for baseball, perhaps a good lesson in Washington." Detroit News columnist Lynn Henning wrote: " Something more enduring than a near-perfect baseball game happened Wednesday night. Armando Galarraga, Jim Joyce, and Jim Leyland -- a pitcher, an umpire and a manager -- turned a supposed catastrophe into a sweet little parable."
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Look for another model of tolerance, understanding or other good behavior under stress -- whether by a public figure or an ordinary person.
Now try to find coverage of conduct or comments that seem selfish, immature or nasty.
See if fans and others still are discussing this in letters columns, reader forums or blogs. 
Pitcher says: "Nobody's perfect. Everybody makes a mistake. I'm sure he didn't want to make that call. . . . He felt really bad." -- Armando Galarraga