Today, lots of people are calling for the instant replay that would have saved poor Armando Galarraga's perfect game. But the truth is, we're better off without it. That blown call “is the most interesting thing to happen in baseball so far this year,” writes Hampton Stevens of the Atlantic. It's more interesting to debate, and more interesting dramatically—especially because of Galarraga's tremendously gracious reaction.
We don't just watch sports to see skill rewarded. We watch them for the stories, and metaphors they contain. “In baseball, you can do everything right and still have it all go wrong because of somebody else's mistake. Kind of like life. A truly gentlemanly reaction like Galarraga's shows how baseball, with all its human foibles in place, can teach us to take life's little disasters with equanimity and grace.” And that's what Stevens calls perfect. (More Armando Galarraga stories.)