|
Blake Wolf/AP
Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky is carried around the bases by Central Washington's Liz Wallace, left, and Mallory Holtman after injuring her knee during their softball game. |
How about the women of the Central Washington University softball team? You've probably heard about the story by now. Last Saturday,
they carried an injured player from the opposing team around the bases, so the first home run she ever hit would count.
Here's the scene: There are two runners on base. Western Oregon University's Sara Tucholsky steps up to bat. She smacks one over the center field fence. She takes off. Misses touching first base. Heads back to try to tag it. Collapses. It's her knee.
Here's the rest of the story from
OregonLive.com, the Web site of
The Oregonian:
"I was in a lot of pain,'' she said. "Our first-base coach was telling me I had to crawl back to first base. 'I can't touch you,' she said, 'or you'll be out. I can't help you.' ''
Tucholsky, to the horror of teammates and spectators, crawled through the dirt and the pain back to first.
Western Oregon coach Pam Knox rushed onto the field and talked to the umpires near the pitcher's mound. The umpires said Knox could place a substitute runner at first. Tucholsky would be credited with a single and two RBIs, but her home run would be erased.
"The umpires said a player cannot be assisted by their team around the bases,'' Knox said. "But it is her only home run in four years. She is going to kill me if we sub and take it away. But at same time I was concerned for her. I didn't know what to do. ...
That's when Mallory Holtman, star first baseman of Central Washington (and all-time home run leader in the conference) steps up to the ump. She asks if it's legal for the opposing team to assist. OK, says the umpire.
AP and CBS pick up the story from there:
So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky's legs, and she put her arms over their shoulders. The three headed around the base paths, stopping to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg.
"It was the right thing to do," Holtman told "Early Show" co-anchor Julie Chen Thursday. "She'd hit it over the fence. She deserved the home run."
"It's kind of a big blur at the moment," Tucholsky said to Chen. "I didn't really realize what was going on -- I've had people tell me -- until I actually had time to reflect on it."
"The only thing I remember is that Mallory asked me which leg was the one that hurt," Tucholsky said. "I told her it was my right leg and she said, 'OK, we're going to drop you down gently and you need to touch it with your left leg,' and I said 'OK, thank you very much.' "
"We started laughing when we touched second base," Holtman said. "I said, 'I wonder what this must look like to other people.' "
"We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run," Wallace said Wednesday. "That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her."
I hope you have a chance to check out both the Oregon Live and AP/CBS stories, which show pictures from that day. They're rich in detail about sportsmanship and leadership -- all the more so when you learn that the amazing act also contributed to Central Washington's loss, and elimination from the playoffs.
Or check out the story from
YakimaHerald.com, which interviewed Mallory Holtman about all the attention the story's getting:
"It's not annoying at all," she said, "and it's awesome for our school and our team. I think the moral of the story is just that winning isn't everything, and that you shouldn't put yourself first."
Holtman hopes to become a coach one day, and admitted that she'll use her story for inspiration -- with something of an asterisk.
"I probably will," she said. "But maybe I'll just take myself out of it and let them think it was someone else."
What do you think about it? Does the story represent the best of selfless leadership? Was the sportsmanlike act worth the loss that followed it? Does it say something about the ways women lead? Do you think a men's team would be as quick to act in this way?
And if you were Central Washington's coach, what would you have said in your post-losing-game speech to the team?
Jerry, If you had read my post, you would have...
