The Greatest Play I've Ever Made

The softball game was already going well. We were holding a comfortable lead, and I was 2 for 2 on the day. I was sitting on second after my best hit of the year, a tall line-drive to deep center. My bench was yelling for me to take 3, which I probably could have. But with no outs, there was no reason to risk it.

The next batter takes a couple pitches, giving me chance to catch my breath. And then she hits a sharp line drive that gets past the infield. I'm approaching third and I decide to go home. As I am passing 3rd base, I realize the 3rd base coach was telling me to stop at 3. But I'm already past the base. I'm going home.

As I get about halfway from 3rd to home, my bench starts to groan. They see the relay throw coming home and it's going to beat me there. But I can't stop. The catcher catches the ball on the bounce as I am 5 feet away. I did the only thing that I could do. Slide head first, to the left of the catcher. Avoid the tag, and swipe my left hand around to tag home.

The bench goes from groans to cheers. The catcher appeals to the ump because she didn't think that I could make it. But the ump tells her it was a nice slide. I get up, high fiving everyone intensely, forgetting for a moment that this is the company softball team.

It isn't until about 5 batters later that I seed a thick trail of blood streaming down my right leg. This is what it looked like after I got it cleaned up:



Line from yesterday: 2/3, 2B, 2 rbi, run
Line on the season: 3/5, (2) 2B, 3 rbi, 2 runs

Also my aggresive base running lead to the batter reaching 3rd. Which she later scored, and then said that it was her best hit ever. But if I had stayed on 3, and she only got a double, would it still have been her best hit?

When deciding to call this the best play I've ever made, I had to think about what was already in the running. "Pylon" from football in college, diving ultimate frisbee catches, a birdie from 50 yards away on the fairway, an ace in tennis, playing basketball at Adam's house...I only wish I had a video camera on me to record a top ten highlight reel.