We've known it for years. Sports is about playing your best game and taking advantage of your opponents' mistakes, all in the name of the ever-elusive win. When it comes to playoff and championship games, the intensity of the game goes up to a new level. It's time to show no mercy and get out there and win.
So what was Mallory Holtman thinking?
Holtman plays for the Central Washington University softball team. Her team was in a playoff game against Western Oregon University. Oregon's Sara Tucholsky was up to bat with two runners on base. After a strike, she unleashed a swing that sent the ball sailing over the center-field fence, her first-ever home run. She rounded first base and, realizing she hadn't touched the bag, went back to tag it. That's when she collapsed, suffering a knee injury. She was able to crawl back to first base and touch the bag, but that's as far as she could get.
I'd think that a home run is a home run whether you run the bases or not, but evidently the rules are different in softball. The first-base coach said she'd be called out if her teammates tried to help her. The umpire added that the team could put in a pinch-runner, but the home run would only count as a single.
It was then that Holtman, the first baseman for Central Washington and the career home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Tucholsky. He said there was no rule against it. So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky's legs, she put her arms over their shoulders, and the three make the trip around the bases, stopping long enough to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg. By the time the trio made it to home plate, the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.
Just a good deed, right? Nope. By carrying Tucholsky, Holtman and Wallace helped her home run score, letting Western Oregon win 4-2 over Central Washington, and eliminating their team from further advancing in the playoffs.
"We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run," Wallace said when explaining Holtman's and her actions. "That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her."
When asked about it later, Tucholsky said, "The only thing I remember is that Mallory asked me which leg was the one that hurt. "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.' She said, 'You deserve it, you hit it over the fence,' and we all kind of just laughed."
Central Washington coach Gary Frederick, a 14-year coaching veteran, called the act of sportsmanship "unbelievable."
When asked about what prompted her to do such a thing, Holtman replied, "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."
Leave it to the ladies in sports to show the big boys how the game should really be played.
Danny Davids has worked in the computer industry for over 25 years. He has provided end-user support, training, and network administration services in arenas as diverse as the service bureau, health, education, communication, manufacturing, and consulting industries. He currently works as a network administrator for a government agency. He is married and has two adult children.
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