Issue 3: Sara Tucholsky
Hey yall, sorry I missed you on Hump Day. It was a long day yesterday (and today for that matter)–so I figured I’d write the entry today instead of yesterday. So happy Thursday night or Friday or beyond–whenever you are reading this!
So I was on the treadmill yesterday at the DAHLC, waiting for the Hillary-Bill O’Reilly interview on “The Factor”, when the last story of the news program before that started. And what started as a light hearted story about a softball player named Sara Tucholsky from Western Oregon that never had hit a home run before hitting her first HR, what happened after that ball went yard was unbelievable. Hard to put words to it. Hard to hear the story being a sports fan and not mist up…
Sara was rounding first base, forgot to touch the bag, and doubled back to touch and continue on her way in her first home run trot. Must have felt good right? Well it did, until her right knee gave out, and she fell to the ground unable to finish.
Now the rules state that if a coach, trainer, or a player from your team assists you while you are an active runner, you are ruled immediately out. Just then Sara heard something (and I heard something last night), that was amazing. She heard someone say, “Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?” It was the voice of Central Washington’s school record holder in HR, Mallory Holtman. She was offering to take her to every bag with her other teammate Liz Wallace. They carried her to every bag and she was credited with hitting the 3-run HR instead of a 2-run single.
What was even more amazing to me is how Holtman plays it off as something anyone would do–her humbleness was unbelievable. She said, “Honestly, it’s one of those things that I hope anyone would do it for me,” Holtman said. “She hit the ball over her fence. She’s a senior; it’s her last year. … I don’t know, it’s just one of those things I guess that maybe because compared to everyone on the field at the time, I had been playing longer and knew we could touch her, it was my idea first. But I think anyone who knew that we could touch her would have offered to do it, just because it’s the right thing to do. She was obviously in agony.”
I think the coach for Western Oregon, Pam Knox summs it up best, “It kept everything in perspective and the fact that we’re never bigger than the game,” Knox said of the experience. “It was such a lesson that we learned — that it’s not all about winning. And we forget that, because as coaches, we’re always trying to get to the top. We forget that. But I will never, ever forget this moment. It’s changed me, and I’m sure it’s changed my players.”
It certainly changed me. I was 1,654 mi away this past Saturday. Who knew some softball game that would happen in little Ellensburg, WA, would move hearts? I certainly didn’t.
Just for the record, Western Oregon won, 4-2.
And little 5′2″ Sara Tucholsky hit her first HR.
And we will never forget.
See you on Friday.
JJ
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