We Just Wanted to Help Her
Posted On: May 09 2008
You may have heard about how two Central Washington University softball players literally carried a player on the opposing team around the bases so she could be credited with a home run. Central Washington and Western Oregon were competing in an NCAA Division II conference tournament to determine which of the two teams would represent the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in the regional tournament with hopes of going on to the College World Series.
The diminutive Sarah Tucholsky, just 5 ft. 2 inches tall, found herself at bat in a crucial time of the game, with two runners on base. She had played sparingly her senior year, having had a total of just 3 hits in 34 plate appearances. Now, for the first time ever in her playing career, she struck the ball solidly and sent it over the fence in center field, giving her team an apparent 3-run lead. However, while watching the trajectory of the ball she missed touching first base. A few steps away from the base she turned to correct this oversight. As she did, her right knee buckled. It was later determined that she had torn an anterior cruciate ligament.
In pain, and unable even to crawl around the bases, it was obvious that her first ever home run would be relegated at best to a single, with a pinch runner replacing her on the base path. Knowing the rules, her coach, made certain that no one on the Western Oregon team or coaching staff touched Tucholsky, who was writhing in pain, because by rule she would be called out.
It was then that Mallory Holtman, the first baseman for Central Washington, a senior herself who has hit several home runs during her career and who owns just about every all-time hitting record for her school, spoke up. “Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each base?” With a possible bid for a national championship for her team hinging on her decision, she came forward to help a player she knew only as an opponent.
The umpires huddled and finally determined that it would be OK for the opposing team to help the injured player around the bases. So Holtman and one of her teammates picked up Tucholsky and carried her around the remaining bases, pausing for her to gently tap her uninjured leg on the base bag.
Upon reaching home plate, both teams were in tears, fans were crying while applauding the sportsmanship they were witnessing, and even the umpires were choked up. The game ended with Western Oregon winning, and Tucholsky’s home run providing the difference. Mallory Holtman said, “we didn’t know that she was a senior, or that this was her first home run. WE JUST WANTED TO HELP HER. It’s really not about winning and losing. She hit it over the fence and she deserved a home run.”
I hope we can all take inspiration from this story when it comes to helping others. There are so many people in need. They may not be on our team. They may not share our viewpoints and they may actually be working to defeat our own ideals. But when we see someone in pain, regardless of who they are, I would hope that we, like Mallory Holtman, would pick them up and give them a helping hand.
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