I like most of you saw the instant replay of the last out of the perfect game pitched by Armando Galarrage.  That's when we all saw baseball umpire Jim Joyce call the runner safe. Then Jim Joyce did something highly unusual in this day and age of professional sports, he accepted responsibility and apologized. Did that shock you? I think what he did, took America by surprise!  Joyce said "I missed it, I missed it," Joyce barked, his voice at the extreme end of anguished. "I took a perf...

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I watched while my football team was getting beat up on the football field that late fall October day. We were getting outplayed by a great football team. Their offense was crisp; the defense crushed us all day. This was not a pretty game to watch or play in. When you play on the college level, your team mates are to keep their negative thoughts to themselves unless it benefits the team. I heard starters saying things that any coach would have benched them for. One of my offensive linemen was c...

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I was taking my turn at batting practice for our church softball team at Shabbona Park in Park Forest, a suburb on the south side of Chicago. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed an older gentleman dressed in a blue suit leaning against the fence watching me hit softballs. I was hitting the balls over the 320 foot outfield fence onto people's roofs. I would look at this man as I got ready for another pitch. It was between my senior year in high school and freshman year in college. I had never...

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Kid, You ain't no quitter! When I played football at Rich East high school in Park Forest in the suburbs of Chicago in the 70's, football was king! We had 80 kids out just for the freshman football team. My freshman football coach was a well rounded and compassionate man. He taught us well and walked most of us scared and nervous kids through the process of becoming football players. I respected my coach, he taught me being a hard worker on and off the field, would help me in the classroom....

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