"I can teach proactivity until I am blue in the face, but we are a blame society. It is everywhere and it is deep. If you can begin chipping away at that, it makes my job in the classroom a lot easier. The 7 Habits training teaches that you have to change yourself first before you can change others, and I tell my students if they follow this philosophy their lives will change for the better." - Pat Shagdai, eighth grade science teacher
The best example I've seen this year comes from baseball pitcher Armando Galarraga, who pitched a perfect game - retiring all 27 batters he faced - something less than two dozen men have done in history.
Except that the first base umpire didn't agree about that 27th guy. In a mistake clear from the video replay, he called the runner safe on a close play.
So what did these children of society do?
Well the umpire, he apologized about a dozen times. And the pitcher... read on from the Detroit media:
"Armando Galarraga was handling his brush with infamy as professionally and admirably as he did the evening before.
Galarraga, who saw his perfect game foiled by an admitted blown call by umpire Jim Joyce, said Thursday he doesn't blame Joyce and is ready to move on.
"I thought he made a mistake, (but) nobody's perfect," said Galarraga, who spoke with Joyce after Wednesday's game. "He said, 'Sorry, I'm sorry,' about three times, and I don't blame the guy."
"Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. I'm sure he didn't want to (miss) a call. When you see a guy like that last night, he felt really bad. The guy is a professional, he's been umpiring for 21 years, for a long time. You move the page."
Galarraga isn't all that mad, but knows fans are. Tigers fans have bombarded newspaper forums and talk shows about Joyce's costly ninth-inning miscue.
"They're mad," Galarraga said of Tigers fans.
Much has been made nationally about the gracious way Galarraga has handled the situation, although he isn't sure why he's getting the attention.
"I believe a lot of guys would do the same thing, I do," Galarraga said. "It's a game. You don't want to get all crazy about it, be in his face.
"The guy (Joyce) apologized right away and he felt really bad."
Galarraga said he wouldn't mind if commissioner Bud Selig overruled the call, although Galarraga won't contact Selig personally.
"Yeah, I'd love it," Galarraga said. "I don't want to make it that big of a deal. The important thing in my heart, I know I'm perfect (in that game). In my mind and heart, and everybody, all you guys saw, I threw a perfect game."
Galarraga said his parents, family and friends back in Venezuela joined the game in progress in the seventh inning when networks there broke in with coverage.
Galarraga contacted his father after the game, who told him "something like, 'Son, I'm proud of you and I know you threw a perfect game. Make sure to keep the ball and the CD (of the game).'
"I have it (the ball) in my locker."
The initial reaction from many fans, and even some analysts nationally, was for baseball to institute instant replay on close calls, similar to other sports.
But Galarraga wasn't sure that would be a good idea.
"I don't know about that," Galarraga said. "Baseball is a slow game and that's why it's so hard. That kind of play, we're humans, we make mistakes."
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