Great sportsmanship story

B

BA93

1,000+ Posts
errr... sportswomanship story.
The Link

Two small colleges in a softball game tied 0-0. 2 baserunners, and a Senior part-time starter at bat. She hits her 1st HR of her college career. She misses 1st base so turns around to tag it and her knee gives out and she can't walk another step.

The rules were interpreted by the umps tthat she couldn't be touched by her teammates (automatic out) and if she was replaced, it wouldn't be a HR but just a single, and the pinchrunner takes her place at 1st.

The coach was going to replace her, when the other side asks the umps if they could carry her around the bases instead. The umps confer and decide its cool. So two members of the opposing team pick up and help her touch the rest of the bases.

Great story. If this is a repeat post, too bad.

ncaa_wallace_sara_200.jpg
 
I saw this on Around The Horn the other day. Woody referenced it during his :30.

I like good sports, but I don't know if I like this story. Maybe I am too competitive, but you basically gave the game away. If she can't round the bases she can't round the bases.

I know. I should be more compassionate.
 
cool story but, what's the deal w/ so many athletic women blowing out an ACL?
There seems to be a huge amount vs. Men,
 
great source. Thanks.
Wiki is solid but I've read some stuff that people have added that I know not to be true.
Still, overall a great outlet.
Thanks.
 
I know that I am in the minority, but I do not think this is a great story. It shows some sportsmanship in a way, but no respect for sport/competition in another. If you can't run the bases after a homerun, you should not be given a homerun. I know she hurt herself, and that sucks and I feel bad for her for that, but I do not agree with what the opponents did.

To me, this is on par with handing out trophies for participation (though not quite as bad because she did hit the ball over the fence).

I may be too competitive like Theu.
 
It wouldn't surprise me to know that theu and shocking news would cheat to win if they find this act non-settling.

She won the game, she just blew the game in the ceremonial walk. Comparing this to giving out trophies to all participants is hyperbole to the maximum level.
 
Homer - no, wouldn't cheat to win. But I would not hand something of value to an opponent in a conference tournament.

Also, the game was not over when this happened. Reading the story, it says that Central Washington rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the second - runs that might have tied the game . . . This makes me think that the homerun happened in the first or second inning. That means she had NOT won the game needing only to complete a ceremonial walk (according to the umpires). The game was not close to over.

However, the story also has a "Rule Clarification" which states that the umpires were wrong on the rule and the pinch runner "must legally touch all awarded or missed bases..." According to that rule, it seems the run would have been awarded, the pinch runner would have just had to run the bases. Knowing that, I do commend the Central Washington girls for doing it.

Lastly, I admitted that it was different than giving trophies for participation and said it was not as bad. The way the umpires at the game were reading the rule (and thus the way I read it before the rule clarification), if she could not run the bases, she did not earn the run. Giving someone a run that is unearned being compared to giving participation trophies is a hyperbole to the maximum? Really?

Just looked at the article again and this did occur in the top of the 2nd.
 
OK everyone bear with me because this post is going to be ******* LOOOOONG!!

Seriously, nothing THU and Shockingnews said tells me they would cheat to win.

HOWEVER I am sure they are the parent or the coach who would want to throw inside to a child with physical disabilities using the rationale that "if he's out here he should be able to play ball".

I am not an advocate of "everyone get's a trophy" by far. In fact I can't stand that ****, but showing a little compassion and sportsmanship every once in a while isn't a bad thing. I've been on both sides of this fence.

A couple of years ago my son was in his first year out of coach-pitch and there happened to be a big crop of boys who wanted to play that year, but some of them got signed up late and didn't make it in for the "draft". Two other dads and myself decide to get together and form another team in the league and we took in several of these late arrivals. Basically we got this team together to give more boys a chance to participate. On this roster we had the following:

-one boy who had had surgery on a broken shin as an infant that left him with one leg slightly shorter than the other.

- two other boys who were very ADHD, but seemed to be able to focus greatly when they were at the plate.

- another boy who seemed completely disinterested in the game. He was living with his grandparents because both of his parents neglected him so much that he was removed from their home. The grandparents were trying to get him into as many "normal" actvities as possible to give him more of a life than just the inside of his bedroom and his parents yelling at him and telling him how much trouble and a burden he was to them, among other things.

- My own son who had gone through a 4th open heart surgery less than a year before.

- Then we had our share of good athletes too. Both of the other 2 coaches' sons were very good athletes, but they were both at the low end of the age range for the league and were also a little undersized as 12 year old boys go.

In other words we didn't really intimidate anyone on sight and me and the other coaches knew that. So we decided that we were going to coach this team in a manner that taught these boys more than how to play baseball, but how to be good people and teammates and how to take the good with the bad. We rarely, if ever used any negative ideas in practice and if someone wanted to try a position we let them go at full blast in practice and decided we might even let them do it in a game.

The season starts and the boys play with the coachs' attitudes of just having fun and we lose the first two games. After that we go on 5 game tear including beating the 1st place team in the league without even thinking about what they had just done.

After a while the coaches on other teams stopped underestimating us and acting nice towards the team with all the "little guys" and kind of began acting like pricks towards the boys and us coaches. They would openly say things out loud about individual boys on our team like "don't worry about him, he can't run fast" or "just pitch it over the plate, he never takes a swing" and soon this even spread to some parents.

Kind of pissed us off but we just got our kids to shake it off by giving encouraging them and giving them specific instruction which were nothing more than what they already did, but we made it sound like we were revealing some big secret about the pitcher or how to hit the ball this time around, when all we were doing was providing a focus to shut out the things being said around them.

These boys kept winning. The y only lost one more game the rest of the regular season which happened to be to the team in first place. They also met that same team for a 3 game playoff to decide the league champion and took it to all three games of the series. The lost the series and ended up 2d in the league.

I was so proud of those kids that I couldn't stop the tears and they ended up in the team photo after the last game and afterward I just stood back and watched those boys be as happy as could be to get their trophies, then I went off by myself for amoment and blubbered for a bit. The smiles on their faces told me they had no clue of what they had accomplished in that league, but that they were just having fun playing a game.

The cool thing was that the coach of the other team was one of the few coaches who didn't act like a dick to try and get the win. In fact he asked us if he could take 2 of our boys for his all-star team, one of them was the kid with one shorter leg who had turned out to be a hell of a catcher and one of the other coach's son who had a really strong arm.

Here's a picture my wife snapped early in the season as they were getting ready to take a team picture.
baseballzoo4.jpg
 
El Oso, that is a great story. Those kids accomplished something great and probably taught everyone in the league (parents, players, and coaches) about respect for opponents, the sport, and people in general.

BA93 - don't worry, I will try to stay away from collegiate athletes before conference tournaments so that we all can rest easily knowing I won't pass along my values regarding college athletics and competition to those impressionable young men and women.
 
Some of you are being idiots.

This isn't on par with participation trophies..this is on par with a team helping out a fellow human being. She blew out her knee in a ****** woman's softball game...not the world series.
 
****, I just ruptured my achilles, but I can still crawl.

On the other hand, I find nothing wrong with what happened there and think it's quite honorable. Some of you take winning to seriously.
 
That's a 'technicality' That would be akin to a 3 pt shot not counting if the player breaks his ankle when he lands. Or a 'hole in one' not counting in Golf if the player ruptures his appendix and can't pick up the ball out of the hole.

Handing over the trophy would be if the ball was inches below the yellow line and saying... "Let's give her the homerun cuz she was close" This is not that.
 
Rounding the bases aren't a technicality. Rounding the bases is part of a HR.
Look, I know that this is a great moment of sportsmanship. I guess I just saw this as not as big a deal as some people made it out to be.
I also see college sports as adult sports. I don't care about youth sports winning. Kids are kids, and sports teaches so much more.
I should apply that to this case as well. And I have had a change of heart in the matter.
 
The "women lack the killer instinct" posters have never met Mrs. Smwhorn.

It is a great story. I saw an interview with the girl who hit the homerun. She said that she asked the first baseman "why are you doing this?' The first baseman ( or woman) said "you hit the ball over the fence. you've earned it."

Great story. The also said on ESPN that all three of the players involved (the homerun hitter and the two that carried her around the bases) are academic all americans in that conference.
 
Agreed with the World Series Comment- a man would have crawled/ dragged his *** around the bases until he got home, hopping, crawling or prone on the ground, if that's what it meant.

Still, women and men are different and that's not a bad thing at all. I can't imagine this would have happened in a men's game, but it is a cool story of sportsmanship nonetheless (imo). It does go to show the differences between women and men. And neither way of doing things is bad really.

Anyone ever hear the story of the marathoner at the olympics who broke his foot (or was it ripped out an ACL or something). He limped in bloody but not broken hours after the event- said his country had sent him to run a marathon not start a marathon. That brought tears to my eyes in a different way than this story did. Both are seriously cool stories though, and if you can't see that I think you need to step back and take a different look.

And BTW- great story on the little league team. Thanks for sharing that.
 
Sometimes I think you have no heart- how can you take something beautiful and try to make it ugly about totalitarians killing family members and the like.

For anyone interested here is what I was talking about.


The Link
 
Those are both great stories. I liked how the Tanzanian appeared confused when asked why he kpt running, as if quitting was not an option.
 
I remember a few years ago in women's basketball, a player was injured (a knee, go figure) one basket shy of a career record. The two teams agreed to just exchange a couple of uncontested baskets to give her the record. I thought it was BS and doubt you would see that with men.
 
parker- this story is completely different, imo. I didn't like the bball deal (UCONN all time leading scorer I believe) but it is what it is and I certainly wasn't going to lose any sleep over it one way or another.

They had an entire King of the Hill spoof episode on that with Bill which was greatness.

And no way that would have happened in a high major mens game.
 
Great story, and great sportsmanwomanship.
I would support our team doing the same thing if it ever happened in a UT game, as I am all about good sportsmanship. Unless we were playing OU, in which case I would recommend our team ageeing to carry the injured player around the bases, but intentionally missing one of them.
 
How anyone can hear a story like this and--rather than being moved by the display of selfless kindness, sportsmanship & all in all goodness created by the respectful act of opposing teammates assisting a fellow competitor --complain that it sets a bad example or use it as evidence that female athletes lack a killer instinct is ******* beyond me.

I can ******* guarantee you that everyone involved in that incident--from the injured girl to the players that carried her to everyone in the stands-- will take with them a lifelong lesson that they will share with generations of friends & family. And many might even reflect upon that moment as a touchstone & use it to balance themselves when forced with a difficult decision or task.

But what the hell, the other team probably would have benefited more if they'd shown that they were "in it to win it" and recognized that "2nd place is just the 1st loser" & instead chosen use a chicken **** technicality to erase a score from an undisputed home run.

Are we that cynical that, rather than celebrating the fact that sports can bring out the very best in people, we're going to sit back & actually ***** that this incident is an indication that the youth of today have diminished values? Get a ******* life, people.
 
Don't worry too much about it. Over time I've come to recognize that half the posters on this site are 20year old kids posting out of their dorm rooms. It puts their comments in perspective.

In my opinion, sports build character. Being a baby and not allowing a homerun to count because the batter blew out a knee is building the wrong kind of character. She didn't almost hit a home run...she hit it over the fence. That is a run scored. And no team or individual athlete should ever try and skate by on some stupid technicality just because they can.

Making her team forfeit that run would probably have helped them in the game, but would not have helped them live life as a good, decent, and honest person.

People are far too eager in sports to try and get the upper edge no matter what. THis was a refreshing story.
 
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