Jeff Pearlman holds a weekly Q&A on his website called “The Quaz Q&A,” and this week’s guest was Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated and the MLB Network. Verducci is one of baseball’s most respected writers and has a slew of stories from his long career covering baseball. One in particular, which he relayed to Pearlman, involves Italians and Albert Belle and the weirdest of baseball superstitions.

It’s always a source of debate when Hall of Fame voting season turns up. Who deserves to get enshrined at Cooperstown? And what are the exact qualifications that voters examine?

We finally read Tom Verducci’s SI story on Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game. It functions as a lesson in grace under fire, and why it’s probably a mistake to get too worked up about someone screwing something up – even something big.