That's Fit

I dare you to read this story without getting choked up.

Throughout their high school and college careers, student-athletes are told over and over again that sportsmanship is important. That's why, in many sports, the athletes and coaches shake hands before and after each game. However, what happened at a Central Washington University softball game is the greatest display of sportsmanship I've ever heard.

The game, versus Western Oregon, would decide whether Central would keep their Division II playoff hopes alive -- it was the second game of a double header, the first of which Western had already won. In the second inning, 5'2" senior right fielder Sara Tucholsky stepped up to bat with two runners on, and did something she'd never done before, not even in practice -- she hit a home run.

Elated, she sprinted to first base and rounded it, but as she did so, she realized she hadn't actually made contact with the bag. She turned to go back and felt an enormous pain as her knee gave out, and she collapsed right there on the base path.

Ever wonder how baseball players like Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds can line up and hit all those home runs with superhuman effort? In a way, maybe they are superhuman, since the products used to greatly enhance those home run-hitting abilities really don't put them on the same playing field as those that don't.

Steroids, which can boost muscle mass by 10 percent (sometimes more) can boost the home run percentage of batters by more than 50 percent, according to a U.S. physicist.

Notice it did not take a medical expert to say that, but a scientist who studied the relationship between muscle mass and the speed of one's baseball bat swing. Result: that ball's speed can be much faster as it leaves the bat due to the faster swing caused by the greater muscle mass.

That takes all the fun out of sports equality, though -- right? Or is that a concept that no longer has any meaning?