A Sporting Gesture Touches ’Em All
Something remarkable happened in a college softball game last Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash.At least, I think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.
After Sara hit a fly ball over the fence which she never made before, she turned back to touch the bag and suddenly her right knee buckled, and she went down crying and crawling back to first base. The umpires ruled that if Sara Tucholsky could not make it around the bases, two runs would score but she would be credited with only a single.
Then Mallory Holtman, the powerful first baseman for Central Washington, and the Central Washington shortstop, Liz Wallace, lifted Tucholsky, hands crossed under her, and carried her to second base, and gently lowered her so she could touch the base. Then Holtman and Wallace started to giggle, and so did Tucholsky, through her tears, and the three of them continued this odd procession to third base and home to a standing ovation.
So maybe sportsmanship is universal and needing to be cultivated.