Not The Only Thing

There was a time when the term sportsmanship meant something.  There was a time when winning wasn't everything.  There was a time when young men and women idolized spots heroes as much for who they were as they did for what they did on the field, the course or the gridiron.

Over time, the idea of sports building character took a huge backseat to the idea of winning at all costs.  Maybe it started when Vince Lombardi famously said that winning wasn't the most important thing... it was the only thing.  Or maybe the legendary coach was only verbalizing what was already the norm.  Regardless of when we started down that slippery slope, there is no doubt it has snowballed in the decades since Lombardi first uttered those words.  Maybe it's the money.  Or maybe it's just the culture of winning at all costs, but today's athletes tend to be willing to sacrifice anything - including their health and their bodies - just to win.

Doping scandals have hit virtually every major sport.  The current holder of Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron's home run record reached that pinnacle through the blatant abuse of steroids and growth hormones, and then continued to lie about it, even in the face of eyewitness testimony. There is not a person on the planet who believes Barry Bond's denials.  To top it off, Bonds is, by all accounts a monumental jerk.

This "win at all costs" mentality has spread beyond sports into every area of our culture.  Corporate ethics have taken a back seat to the bottom line and spawned the Enron scandal, corporate raiders, and CEOs who decimate a company and then walk away with a $100 million golden parachute.  It has most certainly permeated our political process, bringing us candidates who will say or do anything to get elected (I will resist the impulse to name names, but she knows who she is).

Saddest of all, this overemphasis on the outcome has spoiled amateur athletics, down to the lowest level. Parents get into fistfights at their kid's Little League games, High school football players face relentless pressure to win, the concept of the student athlete is now a joke, and worst of all, this pressure to win at all costs results in dozens of deaths each year as young men and women take deadly drugs in a attempt to gain an edge over the competition.

Every now and then, a story comes along that restores your faith in humanity; a story that lets you know that the concept of sportsmanship, integrity and fair play have not vanished from our culture.  Such a story happened last week in Portland, Oregon.  The girls softball teams of Central Washington University and Western Oregon University were pitted against each other in the Great Northwest Conference playoffs.  With two on, Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky unloaded on a pitch and did something she had never done in either high school or college - she belted it over the center field fence.

As Tucholsky rounded first base, she missed the bag.  As she reversed course to touch first, Tucholsky collapsed in a heap with a devastating knee injury.  She crawled back to first, but could not stand.  Officials told her that if her Western Oregon teammates assisted her, she would be called out. Her only option, according to the rules, was to call in a pinch runner and reduce her home run to a single.

Then something amazing happened.

Central Washington's Mallory Holtman walked over to the umpire and asked if there was anything in the rules that prevented the opposing team from assisting her.  The flabbergasted umpire told her there was no rule against it.  So Holtman, who is the Great Northwest Conference's all time home run leader, and Central Washington shortstop Liz Wallace gently helped Tucholsky to her feet and then picked her up and carried her around the bases.  They stopped at each base, setting her down gently to allow her to touch the base with her good leg.

The stunned crowd suddenly realized what was happening.  By the time they reached home plate, both teams were in tears.  Most everyone in the stands was, too.

Holtman and Wallace didn't know that Tucholsky was a senior. They didn't know that this was her first-ever home run.  They just knew that she hit the ball over the fence and earned the home run.  As they rounded the bases, through pain, laughter and tears, Tucholsky looked at Holtman and Wallace and said, "Thank you very much." 

Mallory said, "You deserve it, you hit it over the fence."

The irony is that Tucholsky's home run was the difference in the game.  Western Oregon won 4-2 and Central Washington was eliminated from the playoffs.  Doing the right thing contributed to their losing.

The losing coach, Central Washington's Gary Frederick, could not have been prouder of his team.  The 14-year coaching veteran called the act of sportsmanship he witnessed "unbelievable."

Mallory Holtman didn't see what she and Liz Wallace did as anything heroic. They felt that anyone faced with the same situation would have responded the same.  Would that it were so.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

Tucholsky's knee injury ends her season and her college softball career.  She will graduate in a few weeks with a degree in business. But she will never forget the last play of her college career.  Neither will anyone else who was there. Of all the games those girls will ever play, they will remember this one.  The will remember how it felt to do the right thing. 

They will remember that at the end of the day, winning is not, in fact, the only thing.

Comments

[SoftballGirl]

Thank you so much for this article. I have heard about this story and think it is wonderful and powerful. These young women deserve all sorts of kudos for what they did. Unfortunately, and to your point above, amongst all of those kudos has also been some criticism. You can find blogs online that call these young women names and say they are stupid for doing this and not winning at all costs. I find it so sad that anyone would tear down these girls after this great moment and that there are some that really have never learned that it isn't always about winning or losing but how you play the game.