pretty cool

Opponents carry injured home-run hitter around bases

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence.
But it appeared to be the shortest of dreams come true when she missed first base, started back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury.
She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first-base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch runner could be called in, and the homer would count as a single.
Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned spectators by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count - an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.
Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the career home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Tucholsky.
The umpire said there was no rule against it.
So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky's legs, and she put her arms over their shoulders. The three headed around the base paths, stopping to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg.
"The only thing I remember is that Mallory asked me which leg was the one that hurt," Tucholsky said. "I told her it was my right leg and she said, 'OK, we're going to drop you down gently and you need to touch it with your left leg,' and I said 'OK, thank you very much."'
"She said, 'You deserve it, you hit it over the fence,' and we all kind of just laughed."
"We started laughing when we touched second base," Holtman said. "I said, 'I wonder what this must look like to other people."'
"We didn't know that she was a senior or that this was her first home run," Wallace said Wednesday. "That makes the story more touching than it was. We just wanted to help her."
Holtman said she and Wallace weren't thinking about the playoff spot, and didn't consider the gesture something others wouldn't do.
As for Tucholsky, the 5-foot-2 right fielder was focused on her pain.
"I really didn't say too much. I was trying to breathe," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"I didn't realize what was going on until I had time to sit down and let the pain relax a little bit," she said. "Then I realized the extent of what I actually did."
"I hope I would do the same for her in the same situation," Tucholsky added.
As the trio reached home plate, Tucholsky said, the entire Western Oregon team was in tears.
Central Washington coach Gary Frederick, a 14-year coaching veteran, called the act of sportsmanship "unbelievable."
For Western Oregon coach Pam Knox, the gesture resolved the dilemma Tucholsky's injury presented.
"She was going to kill me if we sub and take (the home run) away. But at the same time I was concerned for her. I didn't know what to do," Knox said.
Tucholsky's injury is a possible torn ligament that will sideline her for the rest of the season, and she plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in business. Her home run sent Western Oregon to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington's chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.
"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

life

between school and work life has been kind of crazy, but things should be winding down soon. the only big thing that has happened is that i decided to graduate in december. VERY EXCITING!! other things that came along with that decision were: resigning as senior peer adviser for next year and moving back to arlington at the end of may.

how did the triathlon go?

not too bad:
by the way, that is second place in my division, not second place overall. i'm not that good.
in case you don't remember, last saturday it was 43 degrees outside when we got into the canal to swim. anyway, considering i hadn't trained and wasn't sure i could actually finish, it went well.

apparently, we're pretty good

President David Daniel invites you to join in celebrating the victoryof UT Dallas' national championship collegiate chess team.With the historic two-time win of the "Final Four" of chess in Baltimore on Sunday, as well as successive Pan-American titles,UT Dallas has retained unprecedented bragging rights forthe U.S. and Western Hemisphere collegiate chess titles.

i'm still not quite sure how this happened...

"playtri sprint tri, april 12th, 7 am"

somehow mom and mary convinced me to do a triathlon this coming saturday. a few things to take note of: it is less than one week away and i have not trained at all and am NOT IN SHAPE, it is at 7am, and mary does half marathons as warmups and has about 2% body fat. so, while a little part of me is excited, the rest of me is completely terrified.

yesterday mom, dad and i did the tour dallas bike tour, which we will never do again. besides having to ride really slow and being scared of crashing, it was semi-fun. there were three major crashes right next to each other and i wanted to take pictures, but i didn't. we did see some really nice houses and some really pretty flowers. **insert awesome untaken picture here**
on the other hand, some friends and i went to the harbor yesterday (it is a newish shopping center/riverwalk thingy at lake ray hubbard) and katherine took tons of pictures. as soon as she uploads them i'll steal some to post.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

on march 21st there was a fire in the apartment building across from mine. the paper came out with an article yesterday and here are a couple quotes:
"The cigarette that alledgedly caused the fire may have been placed in a crack in the wall on the patio of the unit where the fire reportedly started, where it ignited other cigarettes already in the wall." yes, my friends, they were discarding their cigarettes in the column supporting the balcony
"Polomba said fire response was especially quick for this incident because one of his units saw the smoke while returning from another call." can you say lucky?
"According to WP's records, the persons occupying the unit where the fire began were not on the lease." seriously?

in other news, utd has decided to keep the name comets, but scrap the mascot temoc since he looks like a flaming sperm and his name is comet spelled backward. below are pictures of the four new choices to replace him with: a greyhound named sirius, a robot named nano, a flaming man named scorch, or an astronaut named cosmo. under the pictures is a clip of the accompanying article. a couple questions immediately come to mind: why replace a disliked mascot with one that is worse? is there anybody with any sense of normalacy in the group responsible for this? why can't we simply be the comets?

"I like the idea of being able to partner with the Greyhound Rescue Society," Hinkley said. "We'd be doing a good thing there, too." really? we have the facilities to take care of greyhounds?
"To Peterson the greyhound is the most lovable, while the robot is the just the opposite.
"I didn't really like the robot because I think it's difficult to love a robot," Peterson said. "It's difficult to hug a robot and you can't really image a robot jumping up and down and really exciting people because it's confined to certain motions, at least if it's a realistic robot." when was the last time you hugged/loved a greyhound? when was the last time you saw a greyhound jumping up and down and exciting people? is lovable even the image we want to convey?

and someone has been stealing bras out of the laundry center.

people who don't know how to play soccer should not be allowed to wear cleats.

life

if you haven't tried these, you should: AMAZING

hmmm... what to say? what to say? my life recently has been consumed by utd and emler's. why couldn't we just end the semester at spring break? speaking of school, let me just say this: i have never liked group projects. i am one of those people who will do all the work because i want a good grade and don't necessarily trust other people. since i have started grad school i have done group projects in every class, which is completely idiotic since i am in a "professional program", meaning everybody works full time and doesn't have extra time to get together and meet. luckily, i have been blessed with relatively good groups. until now. i literally almost punched one of my group members in the face in the middle of class last week. i am soo frustrated and just want this class to be over! oh, well, life lessons i guess. i'll have to deal with difficult people the rest of my life so i guess this is good training.

maybe i'll take pictures at the softball game tonight to prove i really do have friends :)