i hope you've seen the story from a couple of weeks ago about the softball game between Central Washington University and Western Oregon. In this game a senior player for western oregon who had never hit a home run in her career belted a three run homer that would've given them the lead in a game that was a rivalry and needed for both teams in to make their playoff run. however, as the western oregon senior rounded first base she overstepped and missed the bag. once she realized this she turned to go back and tag except her leg failed to turn with her body and she blew out her knee going back. the umpires assessed the ruling that if her own team mates touched her to help her round the bases she would be called out. if the coach replaced her with another runner the play would be counted as a two run single, therefore robbing the senior of her only home run ever. moved by this assessment two players from the opposing team asked the senior and the opposing her coach for permission to carry her around the bases to give her full credit for what she had already earned by hitting the ball out of the park. i cannot begin to tell you how moved i am with this story. i have been increasingly disturbed, yes disturbed, by the overwhelming rate at which sportsmanship is being ejected from the games like an irate coach after a hard foul. When did all this start? I am assuming it happened slowly over the last couple of decades. I can remember being taught sportsmanship, honesty, integrity, and all these other things that mattered more than actually winning the game. the days of those thoughts are gone it seems. i know so many people that believe that you should strive to win no matter the cost. that includes cheating in all manner of ways (i think this point is made spectacularly clear by the steroids problems in baseball). No one has any integrity in sports anymore.

a few weeks ago i attended a high school baseball game. that saturday there was a match up i found intriguing. i sat in the stands for most of the game with my father in law, Kevin. sometime during the game, which was horribly officiated, a hometown boy hit a home run over the center field fence. just on the other side of the outfield fence is a row of very tall evergreen trees (which ironically vary in height from left to right in ascending order very much giving the mental image of an AT&T commercial). As the ball traveled over the fence from behind the plate we heard a loud smack of the baseball hitting wood, followed by the ball rolling back onto the field and the outfielders ceasing pursuit of the ball. as the play commenced the umpire did not realize that the ball had hit the tree and came back into the field of play and never called the home run. the opposing coach realized this and yelled at his outfielders to get the ball back to the infield. After much debate by the umpires and coaches the umpires officially ruled the play as a one run single instead of a three run homer. Now I realize that in basketball a foul is not a foul unless the ref's whistle blows, however, fouls in basketball are judgment calls. This was a legitimate homer that was miscalled because the umpire was not paying attention. Now this was a small town baseball game not a major league game on TV where replay could be assessed. However, there was an easy way for this to be determined.........ask the outfielders. They saw it, they KNOW it was over the fence and was a legitimate home run. Now, some will say that it is not their call but again i say that a home run is NOT a judgment call, it ACTUALLY happened. It was not a matter of IF it was out of the park but rather THAT it was out of the park. Now, I could put a little of this on the outfielders who saw it go over and said nothing to the umpire, however, athletes are products of their coaching. I sit most all of this massively bad call on the opposing coach. In my opinion, he should have walked to the outfield, asked his players (assuming he himself did NOT see that is WAS a homer, which would be hard to believe) if the ball was actually a home run and then relay that to the umpire. This situation i think breeds disgrace. Now, in this scenario, the home team ended up winning the game (on a bottom of the 7th *last inning in high school ball* walk off grand slam) but the point still stands that NOT being honest and upfront with the reality of what happened is a disgrace. It's a disgrace to the opposing town, the coach, the players, and sportsmanship itself.

I wanted badly to send the previous story of the girls softball game to the opposing coach and say that is what sportsmanship looks like. The other part of the softball story is that by helping the senior around the bases instead of leaving her to be called out or just getting the single, they actually cost their team the game. They gave up victory for integrity, what a remarkable concept!!

This sort of thing spills over into things that even matter less than a highschool baseball game too. How many people do you know that cheat at board games, card games, or anything else? WHY!!?? THEY ARE BOARD GAMES PEOPLE!! I have recently started playing golf on as regular a basis as i can afford (which isn't a lot right now). But there are some people I have played with (and if you're reading this you know who you are) who, no lie, literally shave shots on EVERY hole. I just do not understand this. Pretending that you put the ball in the hole in fewer shots than what actually happened doesn't make you a better player. And if you're playing me you don't need to shave shots......I am horrible and my handicap is around 47 to the power of 10!! I am not sure if this is an ego thing or what but it really does not make them a better golfer just a cheater. Anyway, that is my blog (rant) for now, leave comments......let's discuss.