Anti-Fan: A diamond sparkles with grace

Jim Gordon | The New Mexican

5/1/2008 - 5/2/08

OK. What should we talk about today?

Josh Howard and marijuana? Roger Clemens and Mindy McCready? Ronaldo and three prostitutes who — surprise! — turned out to be an unanticipated gender?

How about none of the above. Instead, let's talk about Sara Tucholsky and Mallory Holtman.

The former is an outfielder for Western Oregon; the latter a first baseman for Central Washington. Their paths crossed Saturday in a double-header at Central Washington, and every one of us is the better for it.

The host team entered the day one game behind Western Oregon in a fight for a Division II softball playoff spot, and lost the opener 8-1, making the second contest crucial to Central Washington's hopes.

Tucholsky, a seldom-used senior hitting .088, stepped into the box in the second inning of a scoreless game with two runners on. Ignoring taunts about her size — she's 5-foot-2 — she promptly smashed a pitch over the center-field fence for her first home run — ever.

The excitable Tucholsky took off, and in her joy, missed first base. Slamming on the brakes to go back and touch the bag, she suddenly crumpled in pain. Her right knee had given away, likely from a torn ACL.

Tucholsky was forced to literally crawl back to first. "I can't touch you or you'll be out," her first-base coach said. "I can't help you."

At this point, Western Oregon coach Pam Knox could have put in a runner for Tucholsky, who would have been credited with a two-run single.

"The umpires said a player cannot be assisted by their team around the bases," Knox told the (Portland) Oregonian. "But it is her only home run in four years. She is going to kill me if we sub and take it away. But at same time I was concerned for her. I didn't know what to do ..."

But Mallory Holtman did, asking the umpires if it would be OK if she and a Central Washington teammate carried Tucholsky.

It was OK, so Holtman and Liz Wallace carried their diminutive opponent around the bases — giggling as they went — allowing her to gently touch her left foot on each bag, then home plate.

Now, Holtman is considered the finest softball player in Central Washington history, so her competitiveness is a given. But with Tucholsky in agony, her instinct to help overrode her instinct to compete. If she wondered if it was the right thing to do, she found out when she and Wallace released Tucholsky into the arms of her teammates.

"My whole team was crying," Tucholsky said. "Everybody in the stands was crying. My coach was crying. It touched a lot of people."

It still is touching people, hitting ESPN, the Associated Press, The New York Times, network news.

Central Washington lost the second game 4-2, lost a shot at the playoffs — and won hearts coast-to-coast.

Thank you, Sara. Thank you, Liz. And most of all, Thank you, Mallory. We can return to the Howards, the Clemens and the Ronaldos of the world next week.

In the meantime, anybody got a Kleenex?

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.