My Greatest Game of Softball Ever Played

All my life I have been playing competitive sports such as fast pitch Softball, Soccer, Swimming, Diving, Gymnastics, Rock Climbing and Track and Field and I was great at it too. I still am very active in sports, although I do not play now due to a broken back and herniated disks, I do use my expertise to coach. Throughout my many years on the field whether it be softball or soccer, I have had several defining moments where I felt like I was on top of the world and life could not get any better than what it was at that very moment. If I had to choose one moment out of all the great plays I have made, I would have to say that my best sports moment ever was during a tournament game when I was 17-years-old and playing for the Union City Traveler's out of Union City, CA.

I would first like to tell my readers what it took for me to make the cut for this team. In the spring of 1987 the Union City Traveler's coach held open tryouts to fill 3 spots on his young ladies fast pitch traveling Softball team. My father was the one who encouraged me to go to the tryouts, so one Saturday I packed all my gear and went to the field. I was amazed at how many showed up for the tryouts. There were 1,700 girls that came from 3 different counties, when I saw this I got a little discouraged and wanted to back out. My father on the other hand believed that I was the best and encouraged me to give it my best shot, even if I did not make it, I would have at least tried. So I did and of course I made the team. Not only did I make the team, but the coach was so impressed with my knowledge and skills for the game he gave me the choice of what position I wanted to play and he was more impressed with my batting average that he made me the "clean-up hitter", meaning I was to bat in the 4^th position. I was so excited to be traveling all over the western states to play our adversaries.

One particular game was a tournament in Lodi, CA about 4 hours from where we were from and to an area of California that was known to be one of the hottest places in California, temperatures get into well over the 100 degree mark. We were to play six games over 3 days, that is two games per day in 100 degree or higher heat and we wore jet-black uniforms, which made it even hotter. By the third day my team the Union City Traveler's had made it to the final game to play against Lodi's best team and they were good. I was playing my favorite position of Center Field; my mom said that when I play center field there is no need for left and right field players to play! I always thought that she was kidding, but I was a great center fielder. It was the last inning of the game there was a runner on third base, two outs, the count on the other teams batter was 3 balls and two strikes, our pitcher was tired and pitched in a fast ball that the batter slammed into far center field. I remember everything was like in slow motion, I was running for the fly ball, I got to the wall and jumped up as high as I could to steal the batters home-run. As I caught the ball, I then looked for the third base runner and saw that she had tagged up to steal home. I was far out in center field and if I trough the ball to hit the cut off man we would loose the game, so with all my might I through the ball from where I was, my coach said it was about 275 yards. I saw the trough make it all the way past the pitcher and into the glove of our very talented catcher as the runner was sliding into the plate our catcher got the tag on her and when the umpire called her out my team went into a frenzy! Nobody realized that I was still in center field on the ground holding my shoulder. Even though we won the game because of my throw, I unfortunately dislocated my shoulder so bad that it also tore all the muscles with it.

My team came to the hospital with me, I was treated and released from the hospital to then be named the "MVP" of our team, I received the game ball and made the local newspaper. This was by far my greatest sports moment.

References for this article came from my personal experiences and www.girlstalksports.com and www.howtoplay.com/softball