Good News

The following is from the my daughter's pastor's Blog. When she forwarded it to me I knew it had to get a bigger audience.

Weary of the Roger Clemens soap opera?

I remember a scene in a Steve Martin movie from years gone by. He is walking down the street of this peaceful town that reminded me a little of Vail, Colorado. He slips a quarter in the newspaper machine [What is that thing called?] and pulls out a paper. He glances at the front page and shrieks in horror. He digs another quarter out of his pocket and throws the paper back in the dispenser. He once again begins his walk and whistles.

That is the way I feel about the news lately. I am weary of politics, recession, ethanol and its effect on the food chain, and candidates telling me that even a small rebate on gas prices really won't help that much. So what do I do? I turn to Sports Center on ESPN. The lead story? Roger Clemens.

I went for a long walk.

In the middle of the week I came across a story that renewed my confidence in the American way of life. If you missed it, this story happened in a remote part of Oregon.

Western Oregon's girls softball team was playing Central Washington's girls team. The winner went to the Division Two Championship Tournament. The loser went home for the summer.

In that game diminutive Sara Tucholsky stepped to the plate. She was a part time starter with a career that could be considered average at best. As a senior this might be her last game as a competitive athlete. The Central Oregon fans heckled her for her petite stature. There were two runners on base. In all of her years of softball, Sara had never hit a home run until this day. One swing of the bat and the ball flew over the fence. HOME RUN!!!

In her excitement rounding the bases, she missed first base. As she went back to tag the base, she turned awkwardly and twisted her knee. She fell to the ground in excruciating pain. She found out later that she had torn her ACL.

This is where the story gets a little complicated. Even though the ball cleared the fence, she had to touch the bases for it to be a homerun. There she lay on the ground very near first base. Her coach desperately wanted to help her, but she was still in "live play." Her coach's intervention would have caused her to be called out; the home run would have been nullified. I am still unclear how all of this would have impacted the runners who scored in front of her.

That is when the first baseman for Central, a star player who had hit many home runs, asked if there was a rule against her carrying her around the bases. The umpire said no. Another Central player came and carried Sara around the bases. They would near a base and slow down. They gingerly placed Sara's left foot on the bag and continued their journey until they touched home.

Their act of sportsmanship hurt their own team. Had they left her there, the best Western could have done was to count the hit as a single and it would have taken runs off the board.

Central lost the game…in some part due to this act of sportsmanship. They did the right thing, even when it cost them.

One day Sara Tucholsky will tell her kids of the day she hit her one and only home run in college in her very last at bat. It is the stuff that childhood fantasies are built on. She will then get to tell them how the other team carried her around the bases. What a great legacy to pass on.

Somewhere in Oregon this weekend Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace will watch as other Oregon schools go to play in the national tournament as they sit home. They will, however, have the joy of knowing they did the right thing.

When you think of over paid, selfish athletes and become frustrated, remember these two girls from Oregon.

By the way, the play should have never happened. As soon as the runner was unable to carry on, the play should have been called dead and a substitute runner brought in. I am glad that the umps had no clue what to do.

Click on this link to read the whole story: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3372631


Jersey Village Baptist Church
Ed Hogan, Pastor
16518 Jersey Drive
Houston, TX 77040
http://www.jvbc.org