A Life Lesson from Central Washington's Softball Team... A MUST READ!

Recently, we visited Seattle, Washington for a vacation. We also went to see my niece Samantha's college softball game. While she didn't get to play much, we had a great time watching the girls. We even got to meet a few of them.

One of their star players is Mallory Holtman. Mallory is a first baseman and in her last year. She has broken several of the school records and is somewhat famous at the school for the girl's softball team.

Just the other day, my sister sent me an ESPN link that was about this Central Washington team. Maybe, you saw the story on the news. In fact, this story not only made local headlines but The Today Show. Word on the streets is that this story is supposed to be on the Ellen Degeneres Show as well as Jay Leno.

In an article by the New York Times titled, "A Sporting Gesture Touches ‘Em All", you read about Sara Tucholsky from Western Oregon's College Softball team. Sara is also a senior this year but what's remarkable is that it wasn't until she played against Central Washington that she scored her first homerun. In fact, she wasn't quite sure that she cleared the fence and ran it out fast to make it to first base where Mallory Holtman was eagerly waiting to get her out. Sara was so busy concentrating on the ball that she missed first base and had to run back to touch the base. Unfortunately for her, Sara's knee buckled and she went down trying to crawl back to first base but in obvious pain.

Two other runners scored due to Sara's slam over the fence, however, without Sara running the bases, she would only be credited with a single instead of the homerun. At this point, it was obvious that Sara wasn't going to make it to home much less first base. One of the other rules for softball is that no one from her team can help her make the play.

Here's what makes this a great story. Knowing the rules of softball, Holtman of Central Washington's team said, "Excuse me, would it be O.K. if we carried her around and she touched each bag?" The umps ruled that that would be O.K. and Holtman and Liz Wallace, the shortstop, carried Sara around the bases and had her touch each of the bags so that she could get her homerun. It was an amazing act of great sportsmanship.

She hit it over the fence," Holtman said Tuesday. "She deserved it. Anybody would have done it. I just beat them to it." She said she had been taught by her coach, Gary Frederick, that "winning is not everything."

Wow, a life lesson that I believe we can all learn from. I'm so proud of my niece's team... almost like it was one of my own kid's teams. Crazy thing is I actually met some of these girls.

Here's what the coach had to say in regards to Holtman's statement, "As coaches, we are so competitive, we forget this stuff. By God, I would hope I would have done the same thing." How about you? Would you have done the same thing or not? Good question for all of us to ponder.

References: Vescey, George. April 30, 2008. "A Sporting Gesture Touches 'Em All." The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/sports/baseball/30vecsey.html?_r=2&ref=sports&oref=slogin&oref=slogin