If you needed more evidence that baseball is part of America’s heartbeat, then these past few weeks gave you that.

Armando Galarraga, a pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, was one out from what has only been done twenty times in the past hundred years or so. A perfect game. He had one batter to go, light hitting Jason Donald. Galarraga stared in for his catcher’s sign, got it, wound up and threw. Donald hit a slower grounder to first and Galarraga took off to cover the bag. The ball landed in his glove steps before Donald got there.