[Vision2020] "The Grinch Who Stole a Homer" By Rick Reilly

[Tom Hansen]

"The Grinch Who Stole a Homer"
By Rick Reilly

One coach followed the rules when they should have been broken

Some things are so small, so miniscule, so atomically insignificant, they
can be seen only from three feet away using the Hubble telescope. The
heart of Jean Musgjerd is one of these things.

She's the women's softball coach for Rochester (Minn.) Community and
Technical College. Here's what Coach Musgjerd did -- and try to keep your
lunch from rising up as you read:

It's this past May's Minnesota College Athletic Conference state tourney,
and Central Lakes College is tied with Rochester, 0-0, bottom of the
seventh and final inning. Central Lakes pitcher Olivia Graham has her
first no-hitter going. Now, with Central Lakes at bat, she just has to
hope her team can score a run to lock it up.

Sure enough, Central's freshman first baseman, Ashly Erickson, rips one
over the fence. Game over. Madness erupts. As Erickson and her cantaloupe
smile round third, some teammates high-five her. It's the greatest moment
in her short softball life.

But when she touches the plate, the Rochester players begin shouting,
"That's an out! She's out!" Then Musgjerd helpfully tells the ump that
Erickson should be out since, according to the rules, teammates aren't
allowed to "touch a batter or baserunner legally running the bases."

Central Lakes' interim coach, Heidi Rogge, was flabbergasted. She'd taken
over only two weeks before, when the head coach suddenly quit. "I can't
imagine a coach thinking that way," says Rogge, 28. "I couldn't be that
petty. How can someone feel good calling that?"

The head ump for the tournament listened, shrugged and said, "Batter's out."

It was a walk-off-walk-back-on homer -- the first game ever lost by
congratulations.

Erickson was crushed. "I thought, How can that not count? I hit it over
the fence!"

So you can guess the rest. Graham lost her no-no in the ninth and
Rochester won, 4-0. Musgjerd's integrity was in the dumpster, but hey, her
record improved. She didn't return my calls but did tell the Minneapolis
Star Tribune: "You don't want to win in that way, but you have to play by
the rules."

No. You do not want to win that way. Period. It's lower than mole excrement.

Worse, the Rochester players yelling "That's an out!" as soon as Erickson
crossed the plate suggests the move was a stink bomb Musgjerd had been
saving in her purse, ready to throw in the middle of somebody's parade.
Who thinks that small?

I hate this kind of crap. There's nothing cheaper than using some tiny,
unconnected technicality to rob somebody of her rightful moment of glory,
won fair and square. It's the cheapest thing in sports: an adult
pencil-whipping some kid just because she can. And my e-mail box fills up
with these kinds of stories all the time.

I lost the pine box derby because a den master said I didn't fill out the
form right.

They DQ'd our team because the coach found out I failed math class two
years ago.

They said the goal didn't count because my jersey was out.

Makes me want to chew a hole through my desk.

For another thing, that's not even the rule! The rule states that the
first infraction calls for a warning. Erickson should've just been warned,
not called out. Would love to know what the umps were thinking on this.
But they won't call back either.

It just didn't have to happen.

Remember what transpired just over a year ago in women's softball? A
Western Oregon player hit a home run but, in her jubilation, ripped her
knee touching first. Nobody knew what to do. Because of this stupid rule,
her teammates and coaches couldn't help her round the bases. And that's
when two kids on the other team -- Central Washington -- decided to carry
her around the bases. Imagine that: sportsmanship.

The whole thing still leaves the 18-year-old Erickson wondering what the
adult world is coming to. If she ever becomes a coach, will she make the
same call to save a win? "No. No way. They would have earned that home
run. That should be their glory. I'd let it go. 'Cuz that's not right."

No, it isn't. And if Coach Musgjerd has a thimbleful of self-respect left,
she should call up Rogge today and forfeit the win, because both she and
the umps had it wrong. She should say, "Turns out it should've been a
warning, not an out. You win. Congrats."

Because, after all, you have to play by the rules.

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Ashly Erickson, who plays first base for Central Lakes College, hit a home
run called back on a rules violation by the opposing coach.

http://a.espncdn.com/i/mag/blog/0617Reilly1.jpg

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown