In last night's softball game, the first game of a double header, something bad happened. It was the bottom of the first, and I was on first base with a single. The next batter hit a ground ball to third and I knew they were going to throw to second so I was off like a shot. I knew also it was going to be a very close play with slim chance of me being safe. So, I did what anyone would have done, I got down and slid. Everything else happened really fast. With my right leg extended and the full force of all my weight behind it my cleted foot struck not a hard base, but something soft and malleable with a sickening crunch sound. The second base woman went down hard and began to scream in a way that I have never heard before. It was bad. EMS was called and she was carted off on a stretcher, with a morphine drip going. They didn't know if her ankle was broken, dislocated, or severely sprained, but it looked pretty torn up and wrong whatever it was. I felt terrible last night and still am shaken up this morning. I was mentally out of the second game and could not do anything offensively.

So, Sio, if you still read this, you're no longer the only purple heart winner from playing softball with me.

The umpire did pull me aside as the people were working on the injured one to say that I did everything right and did exactly what I should have done. That it was not my fault. It was a force out at second and she should have caught the ball tagged the base and moved. But instead she caught the ball, stood directly in the base path and went for a tag out. The umpire reassured me that nothing I did was wrong, illegal, or unneccesarily rough or anything like that. He said it was just that in a rec league, people of all skill levels play and sometimes they don't know what they're doing or cannot think quickly or sometimes, even good players make bad choices, or just plain get hurt in a freak accident. My teammates were good about calming me down too, so thanks guys. Brennan reasured me too, re-telling me the story of the time he broke a guy's arm with a pitch. I've contacted the captain of the other team in an effort to get the young lady's address to send flowers. Sports can be rough, still, even with all the reassurance that it was not my fault, I feel like feces.

-R

[Update: The president of Club Sport just called me to say that the young lady had just called her in an effort to get my number, but the same policy of non-disclosure applied to her as to me. The message that she wanted to relay was that she did, in fact, break her leg, but that she bears no ill will or hard feelings towards me. She said that it occured in the spirit of fun and hard play and that sometimes that happens. She also wanted to apologize for flipping me the bird from the stretcher (which I did not take personally). So, it was good for me to hear the result, even though said result sucks big time, and that she was not mad at me. I feel a little better about it now.]