Softball Lessons

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My daughter started softball this spring. She's seven, totally inexperienced and very excited. I'm hoping that she'll learn all of the important stuff that she needs to become a good ball player, but I'm hoping she'll learn some important life lessons as well. A very inspiring story from the news this week makes me believe that my hopes may be justified.

Maybe some of you already heard this story, but it is well-worth repeating. This past week, the women's softball teams from Central Washington University and Western Oregon University were competing in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Sara Tucholsky, a senior player with the Western Oregon team came up to bat. With two runners on base and a strike to her credit, she did something she had never done before; she hit a home run! The crowd cheered as Sara began running the bases but, in her excitement, she failed to actually touch first base. She turned to step back and tag it and, suddenly, collapsed. Sara's quick turn had torn a knee ligament.

Softball_reduced Unable to get up, Sara looked to the first base coach who told her that it was against the rules for her teammates to help her. The umpire stepped in and said that her team could send in a pinch runner, but the hit would only count as a single.

In order for the hit to count as a home run, Sara herself would need to touch all of the bases. Sara was devastated.

It was then that Mallory Holtman, first baseman for Central Washington University, stepped up to the plate - so to speak. Mallory asked if there were any rules that would prohibit her, a member of the opposing team, from helping Sara. When the umpire said no, Mallory and her teammate, Liz Wallace, carefully picked up Sara Tucholsky and carried her from base to base, pausing just long enough for Sara to reach down with her uninjured leg and touch each of them.

The three-run homer counted and as a result, Mallory and Liz's team not only lost the game, but lost any chance of winning the conference and going on to the play-offs. Mallory (Read more...)