I was watching ESPN last night when a story came on which caught my eye. The story was talking about a women’s college softball game played between Western Oregon University and Central Washington University. 5’2″ Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in high school or college ball, but on this day she got hold of one, and drove it over the fence. In her excitement she missed firstbase, when she went back to touch it, something popped, it was her ACL.
While she lay on the ground in agony, her coach contemplated what to do, if a pinch runner was inserted, she would be credited with a single. She’d be ruled out if her teammates assisted her in any way. But then, miraculously, her opponents did an amazing thing. They asked the umpires if they could carry her around the bases. The umps told them, there was no rule against that. So two players from the opposing team carried Tucholsky around the bases, tapping her foot down on each base, as they rounded the bases. They’d said, she earned it.
This is much more than, who won the game? That fact will soon be forgotten, but this act of true sportsmanship will live on.
You have to wonder if this would happen in either other sports or in a more cutthroat area of softball. I think the idea that this was two schools that are off the beaten path and perhaps some of these kids have competed in high school too had anything to do with this.