Who Said Sportsmanship Is Dead?

[Delhommey]

Just needed some teenage girls to show us how it's done.

Marshall pitchers had already walked nine Roncalli batters. The game could've been 50-0 with no problem.

It's no wonder. This was the first softball game in Marshall history. A middle school trying to move up to include grades 6 through 12, Marshall showed up to the game with five balls, two bats, no helmets, no sliding pads, no cleats, 16 players who'd never played before, and a coach who'd never even seen a game.

One Marshall player asked, "Which one is first base?" Another: "How do I hold this bat?" They didn't know where to stand in the batter's box. Their coaches had to be shown where the first- and third-base coaching boxes were.

That's when Roncalli did something crazy. It offered to forfeit.

Yes, a team that hadn't lost a game in 2½ years, a team that was going to win in a landslide purposely offered to declare defeat. Why? Because Roncalli wanted to spend the two hours teaching the Marshall girls how to get better, not how to get humiliated.

"The Marshall players did NOT want to quit," wrote Roncalli JV coach Jeff Traylor, in recalling the incident. "They were willing to lose 100 to 0 if it meant they finished their first game." But the Marshall players finally decided if Roncalli was willing to forfeit for them, they should do it for themselves. They decided that maybe -- this one time -- losing was actually winning.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5218228

[Zaximus]

Great story. I think the MLB should jump on this and start helping programs around the country, softball or baseball.

[neverlosethefeeling]

Good story.

I umpire tournament baseball games on the weekends and I can't tell you how many times after a game the coaches and players won't even shake hands. Sometimes the coaches and parents get so bad I would love nothing more than to say "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

[Darth Biscuit]

That's a great story and all, but why would you take kids to a game to play if the coaches didn't even know how???

[SmootsDaddy89]

Women's sports lol.

[DirtyMagic97]

That's a great story and all, but why would you take kids to a game to play if the coaches didn't even know how???

Yea, I mean there is such thing as practice. Or at least one get together. Or hell, just get on wikipedia to figure out where the bases are.

But still a cool story. You are hard pressed to find even the most moderate form of sportsmanship throughout a game, let alone doing something that big to help another team out.

[ladypanther]

Nice story...some great kids there on both teams.