Many of you have probably already heard about this, but I just could not let it pass without comment. These are the kind of young people we all hope we are raising or have raised.
It takes place during a college playoff softball game between Central Washington and Western Oregon. Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky stepped up to the plate and did something she had never done before. She hit a home run over the fence.
But when she missed tagging first base and tried to stop and go back, she injured her knee. She crawled back to first base and touched it, but it was obvious she could not continue to round the bases -- she couldn't walk at all. The umpire said if one of her own teammates or coaches helped her, she would be called out.
The coach could send in a substitute, but the substitute would remain on first and Tucholsky would lose her home run. That's when a couple of players on the opposing team showed some real class.
There was no rule against an opposing player helping Tucholsky, so Central Washington's Liz Wallace (shortstop) and Mallory Holtman (first base) picked up the injured Western Oregon player and carried her around the bases, pausing at each one to let her touch the base with her uninjured leg.
When they carried her across home plate, the entire Western Oregon team and most of the crowd were in tears. The Central Washington coach called it an "unbelievable" act of sportsmanship.
Later Wallace said, "We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run...We just wanted to help her." Holtman said, "In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much. It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run." Both said others on their team would have done the same.
Central Washington lost the game and were out of the playoffs, but the people of Washington and their home campus can be very proud of this team and these two young ladies.
It would be a much better world if we all showed this kind of selflessness and class.
I heard about that on ESPN and thought that it was a very moving story. Wouldn't it be nice if our politicians had the same sense of honor and decency?
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