The Monday Memo

Another baseball story. In fact, it’s another near-perfect game story.

On May 26, 1959, Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher Harvey Haddix accomplished something no one else in baseball has accomplished. He pitched 12 perfect innings in a game against the Milwaukee Braves. It was enough to set a record, but it wasn’t enough to get a win.

The score was tied at zero in the bottom of the 13th when the Braves’ leadoff hitter reached first on an error. Two batters later, Joe Adcock knocked in the winning run. The Braves took the game, 1-0. And Haddix took the loss.

The Pirates had men on base all afternoon — more than a dozen altogether — but they couldn’t manage to get any across homeplate. And so, with no help from the offense, Haddix’s brilliant record-setting performance wound up in the L side of the ledger.

Today many leaders are convinced if they themselves can maintain a certain level of brilliance, it will be enough to guarantee the success they’re looking for. While brilliance won’t exactly work against you, it will never take the place of teamwork. You’re not enough by yourself. Whatever it is you’re trying to do, you can’t do it alone. You need a team — a team of team players.

Solomon wrote, Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up… Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:10, 12)

I encourage you to remind those on your team today that you’re committed to doing your part, that you’ve got their back, and you’re thankful that they’ve got yours.

Are you a baseball fan?

If so, you already know about Armando Galarraga’s near perfect game. You know about the bad call: The throw beat the runner. Galarraga deserves to be recognized as the 21st player in 135 years to pitch to perfection. His accomplishment deserves to be memorialized in the Hall of Fame, as all perfect games are. But it won’t be, because his perfect game was taken away with a bad call on the last out.

Instead, Galarraga will be remembered for something greater: his response to the injustice. Did you see it? Umpire James Joyce called the runner safe, and Galarraga smiled.

We know how other players might have responded. We’ve seen entire teams collapse and championships lost in the aftermath of a bad call. [St. Louis Cardinals, 1985]

But Galarraga just smiled — albeit a sardonic “you’ve got to be kidding me” smile — and then he went back to the mound and got the last out. Even after the game, he refused to lash out at the umpire’s mistake.

ACKNOWLEDGING A BAD CALL
Blown calls are a fact of life. They come at us in different ways: The boss who gives credit to the wrong guy, the teenager who blames everyone else for their own insolence, the church member who finds fault in everything the pastor does. The result is that sometimes you get short-changed. You deserve credit, but credit doesn’t come your way, thanks to someone else’s bad judgment.

It’s happened to each of us before, and it will certainly happen again. In Galarraga, we see how to respond. You don’t lash out. You don’t lose your head. You smile and go back to work. You do your job with excellence, even when you have to deal with a little unfairness along the way.

Galarraga didn’t get the perfect game he deserved. But he did show fans everywhere how a sportsman plays the game.

It reminds me of how Paul praised the believers in Thessalonica for their example in the face of suffering…

And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia…your faith has become known everywhere. (1 Thessalonians 1:7-8)

Today, you’ll have a chance to show your corner of the world how a believer responds … to setbacks, to struggles, to criticism, to conflict, to disappointment, to injustice. You don’t lash out. You don’t lose your head. You smile and keep doing your job with excellence. Others will notice.