A GAME TO REMEMBER

It seems that one cannot open a sports section of a daily paper without reading about professional athletes taking steroids to give them more power at the plate, or a pitcher deliberately hitting a batter because he hit a home run the last time they faced, or a hockey player tripping or high sticking an opponent who scored a goal against his team, or a professional football team illegally videotaping an opponent’s signals. The list goes on.

What a pleasure it was in April to read NYT Sportswriter George Vecsey’s account of a remarkable example of sportsmanship that happened in Ellensburg, Washington in a women’s softball game between Western Oregon and Central Washington.

Sara Tucholsky, a small player for Western Oregon, hit what looked like a three-run homer. She had never before hit a home run, so as she watched the ball sail over the fence she forgot to touch first base. When she realized her mistake she turned around to touch the base, but her knee buckled. She fell to the ground and tried to crawl back to touch the base.

Pam Knox, the Western Oregon coach, made sure that no teammate touched her because then she would be unable to advance and would be credited with a single and only two runs would score.

Then Mallory Holtman, the first baseman for Central Washington said, “Excuse me, would it be O.K. if we carried her around the bases and she touched each base?”

The umpires huddled and said that it would be legal. So Holtman and Liz Wallace, the Central Washington shortstop, lifted Sara with hands crossed under her and carried her to second base so Sara could touch the base. Then they carried her to third base where she touched the base and then to home plate where all three received a standing ovation from fans who were in tears as Sara touched home plate.

Vescey asks, where did this come from, this impulsive gesture by Mallory Holtman?

“She hit it over the fence,” Holtman said. “She deserved it. Anybody would have done it. I just beat them to it.”

Pam Knox, the Western Oregon coach, disagrees. She said the act came from character because Mallory Holtman and the other players of Central Washington play for Coach Gary Frederick who teaches his players that “winning isn’t everything.”

Vecsey gives credits for his article to Jared Max of WCBS-AM news and to an article by Graham Hayes of ESPN. He ends his article by saying that “Sara was too immobile to join the handshake line at the end of the games Saturday. But her family has been in touch with Holtman, photographs have been exchanged, the two teams are wrapped in a bond of good feeling we can only wish did not seem so singular, so remarkable.”

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