The Makeup Call

My son Josh got a first hand lesson on the pain of being the victim of the makeup call. In baseball the makeup call is when the umpire has blown a call earlier in the game so in an effort to ‘make good on it’ he makes another wrong call… this time in favor of the opposing team.

My son’s team, the Yankees was batting. With two outs a player was tagged out at third, a run scored but after the third out was made. The ump counted the run. It was a mistake….and he knew it.

So in the bottom of the inning Josh was pitching with his team leading by one. There were two outs, a man on third and a full count. Josh pitches what was clearly strike three. Game over right? No. The ump calls it a ball. The Red Sox continue their at bat with the tying run on third. Josh, pitches, the ball gets by the catcher the man scores from third and the game ends in a tie 6-6. That’s baseball. It seems unfair…but its part of the game.

Sometimes life can throw us some ‘makeup calls’. In college they called it the ‘kick the cat’ syndrome. You have a horrible day at work so you come home frustrated and tired the cat gets in your way so you kick it. It’s not the cat’s fault you had a bad day...just like it wasn’t Josh’s fault the ump blew the previous call. Ever been the victim of a makeup call? Spouses experience it when husbands take a rough day at work out on the family. Adults experience it when students assume all adults are mean because one has treated them badly. Students experience it when they get labeled as ‘bad’ because of what other students have done. No one likes the makeup call. Let’s make our calls on a case by case basis.


tags: baseball ministry youthministry psychology