OK, it’s technically sportswomanship.
Pop quiz, hotshot: What do you do when a senior who has hit the only home run of her career gets injured — she was so excited she missed first base, and when she turned to tag it, messes up her knee to the point she can’t complete the circuit?
Umpires confirmed that the only option available under the rules was to replace Tucholsky at first base with a pinch runner and have the hit recorded as a two-run single instead of a three-run home run. Any assistance from coaches or trainers while she was an active runner would result in an out. So without any choice, Knox prepared to make the substitution, taking both the run and the memory from Tucholsky.
What do you do? What … do … you … do?
Well, if you’re the other team, you aren’t forbidden from assisting her. So you carry her around and let her touch all of the bases. ‘Cause you’ve got loads of class.
Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, stopping at each one so Tucholsky’s left foot could secure her passage onward. Even with Tucholsky feeling the pain of what trainers subsequently came to believe was a torn ACL (she was scheduled for tests to confirm the injury on Monday), the surreal quality of perhaps the longest and most crowded home run trot in the game’s history hit all three players.