Sportsmanship

[billroper]

If you're not a sports fan -- or even if you are -- you may have missed this story about how the members of the opposing team carried the young woman who had just hit the only homerun of her career around the bases after she blew out a knee ligament running the bases. It ended up not being the deciding run of the game, but it could have been.

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I thought that totally rocked! Many lessons to be learned

[scarfman]

I wonder if it would have happened had it been men instead of women.

[madfilkentist]

That was a great action, but Graham Hays inexcusably slaps the participants in the face with his declaration that it "celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement."

In fact, Holtman said, "She hit the ball over her fence. She's a senior; it's her last year." Three uses of the personal pronoun. A recognition that she had done something and deserved to have the accomplishment to her credit. This was not Seven of Nine carrying Eight of the Other Nine around; it was a human being recognizing what Hays seeks to denigrate: an individual athletic achievement.

[kizoku42.livejournal.com]

But we aren't reading about it because the one woman hit a home run. We're reading about it because of the other two. And especially because the one who thought of it doesn't think she did anything special. Which she did and didn't. Odd that sportsmanship has become so rare in sports.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Fantastic ... tears here ... and yes, I'd hope anyone would have done it, and rejoice that someone did ... and it's a great message to all, both that you can hit a homerun even when no one expects it of you, and that just because you're on opposing sides of something (a game, politics, an argument) you must never lose track of the fact that it's a fellow human being on the other side and you share far more than you oppose.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

that is way cool

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

That's a refreshing note. It's good that sportsmanship is not *entirely* dead . . .

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

This is the sort of thing that sports is supposed to be about, but so very, terribly rarely actually is. I see sports as generally positive for the people who actually participate. It's the culture of people who only watch, and everyone from the players themselves to politicians who pander to the watchers, that make me deeply distrustful of organized sports.

[carolf.livejournal.com]

This is indeed the story all these women will tell for the rest of their lives. Husband has a similar tale from his little-league days. Hardly a sportsman, he was having trouble hitting pitches. The opposing team's coach took him aside and gave him a bit of a quick lesson. I don't know if Husband went on to hit really well, or if his team won, or anything else. He just remembers how wonderful it was for that adult to do it for him.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

As for team vs individual accomplishment: I don't care that the writer says it's NOT about personal achievement. It is and it isn't. It is, because the whole point is that each of these women is a winner. The Central star had already racked up her wins; the injured woman had just hit the ball of her life, and everyone wanted to let her have the just rewards of her efforts. She deserved the chance on her own; she got the chance with the cooperation of others.

All of them are winners, period. As are we, to have them in our world.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

Brava! Brava!

great story!

[harperjen.livejournal.com]

My mother, who NEVER reads the sports section, felt compelled to open it one day last week and saw that story. How awesome it is to witness compassion, generosity, and selflessness in action!

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

That's a great story. Thanks for posting it.