In truth, most news stories depress me. The latest one to do so was the story where thieves in Massachusetts stole a wheelchair from a disabled dog.
Our world is often harsh and cruel. Some people we believe are human significantly worsen our human condition. What’s wrong with them? Do you really need a canine wheelchair that badly but can’t afford one? People steal stuff they don’t even need or want, just for the thrill of stealing. Mindless stupidity.
Playing sports can be a wonderful means of escape from the drudge of our daily routine and the cruelty of our world. We may relax for a few hours of pleasant respite spent in purposeful exercise formed into game.
But as soon as we begin to organize ourselves into teams, it tends to bring out the worst in us. It is demonstrated most often by our competitive nature.
The desire to win for the group by any means necessary can lead to “taking one for the team.” Screw the individual player; if it’s a game, you might get away with legal homicide.
You’ve got an opening to take a blind hit on a player with the opposing team? Hey, take him out. It’s a cruel world.
Now, you’d hate it if the skate was on the other foot and you were the one in the cross hairs, but it’s dog eat dog, right? Then you can steal the wheelchair because the dog won’t need it anymore.
You could have broken the guy’s neck or killed him, but it was a great opportunity for a cheap shot, wasn’t it? It’s all about winning for the team.
Or is it?
That inhuman mentality of the worst in sports is precisely why we all should sit up and take notice when someone steps forward to do the right thing. Of course, it took a couple of women to show us men how it’s done…
Senior Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University had never hit a home run in her life.
She was probably as surprised as anyone when she connected for a three run shot in the second inning of the second game in a double header to help decide the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s softball championship.
“I’m more of a line drive hitter. I don’t hit for power,” Sara admitted.
In her excitement, she passed first base without touching the bag. When she turned back, her right knee refused to cooperate.
Sara tore the ACL ligament and immediately dropped to the ground, writhing in excruciating pain. She crawled back to first base and hugged the bag while umpire Jacob McChesney stared at her helplessly, wondering, what are we gonna do?
If any of her teammates touched Sara before she touched home, she would be ruled out. A substitute runner could only be awarded first base, the last she safely touched. Sara’s home run would be reduced to a two run single unless she crawled home. Rules of the game.
Mallory Holtman, a player from Central Washington, knew exactly what needed to happen.
Sara’s hit cleared the fence. She deserved more than first base. She had earned the right to touch them all.
Mallory is the leading home run hitter in conference history, so she knows a lot about touching them all. She approached the umpire and asked for permission to help.
It turns out that there’s absolutely nothing in the rulebook to prohibit a member of the opposing team from assisting an injured player around the bases.
So Mallory and teammate Liz Wallace carried Sara from first base to home plate, pausing to carefully touch her left toe to each bag as they circled the bases together.
Mallory and Liz were laughing, imagining the cheers and smiles they would receive when their job was done. After all, it’s only a game, right?
Mallory looked surprised, confused and a little disappointed as she said, “When I looked up, I didn’t see giant smiles and screams. I saw emotion and tears, and people crying.”
It’s a good thing I wasn’t in the stands, Mallory. You’d have been absolutely mortified to see me there, blubbering like a baby.
You are young and still quite naive. You simply don’t realize how rare you are.
Winning isn’t everything, or the only thing, as Vince Lombardi once suggested. He also said, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.”
Only is the most strict sense is that statement true.
True, that day Mallory, Liz and their teammates at Central Washington lost the game to Western Oregon 4-2 on the strength of Sara Tucholsky’s home run.
But they were not losers.
In her last ever at-bat, Sara propelled her school to its first conference championship. She earned a champion’s ring. That makes her a winner by any measure.
But Mallory Holtman is no good loser. She’s also a winner. She and her teammates won by any measure of character. should i buy Clomiphene online
http://ashmann.uk/nonsense/memories-and-photos How you play the game matters.
Speak Your Mind