http://www.katu.com/news/18406659.html

What a great story, and I'm not even a sports fan.

Read it yesterday. As good as ANY sports story that has happened or will happen this year

I think it ranks up there with that autistic basketball assisant who was allowed to play in a high school game and canned a whole bunch of 3 pointers.

Most excellent story!! Great find, thanks for posting it Vitalogy!

I was hoping there were some pictures of this story. I read it this morning in Manzanita on Oregonlive.com. Brought a tear to my eye as well.

Great find Vitalogy!

Those girls know more about the true meaning of sportsmanship than any big leaguer in a major sport. To make a team sacrifice like that when playoff berths are on the line is testimony to the character of those kids.

Since Vit brought him up, how about another cheer for Jason McElwain!

They ran this story on KATU's 11:00 news last night!

Still Excellent!

Let's bring this back up to the top of the thread again. It's just too good to let it die yet.

This story is the hottest story on the internet, network TV, cable, and all the sports networks.

I also thought John Canzano did a terrific follow up story too.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf?/base/sports/1 209608733155670.xml&coll=7

This one is just great!! Totally spot on comments about character. It takes a lot to do the just and true thing, when there are plenty of OUTS for not doing it and potentially winning state / regional playoffs.

The baseball team I'm working with has some character issues. Part of each practice has been some work on being better people, using the sport as a framework to get that messaging done for them.

Good kids, all of them. Just a little to quick to set higher than reasonable expectations for one another, then pull each other down when they are not met. Getting better each week, but it's the usual grind through getting it done.

I'm taking this story to practice tomorrow. It's way too good not to talk about. There is nothing better than a moment like this where everybody is just there, feeling good and it's perfect.

One of the things to play for in the first place, IMHO.

There is some truth to the follow up story too. Good food for thought.

This will be a great story to share with your team Missing. Good idea to show balance in a world filled with imbalances.

There is just so much you can take away from this moment that you can use in those teachable moments.

As a 21-year-old camp counselor I experienced something I'll never forget.

I was working at a church as a junior high leader during one of my college summers in the Tri-Cities area. During the summer we went to camp in Grandview WA with other Jr. high kids.

Eventually the camp was split into four teams for camp Olympics. Each Jr. High leader was given 20 kids plus a couple of high school helpers.

Looking over my kids I could tell this lot was not the most athletic and we would need some other kind of strategy in order to compete.

Short story: I was able to infuse sportsmanship with my group of kids. So much so they took it to the next level. After the first days competition we were dead last in points. However we were in first place in sportsmanship. As a matter a fact we were the only team with sportsmanship points! More points than the team that was leading in the team competition.

As the week went along the other teams began to emulate our teams sportsmanship. It was really something to watch and be apart of. By the end of the competition we placed third in the overall competition but first in sportsmanship. However all the other teams had brought their sportsmanship points up dramatically.

If you give people the chance to do the right thing and not the easy thing, and then they see the value of the right thing, that is a sweet moment and in some cases life-changing.

Chris Taylor: Just curious if I read your letter to the editor in the Oregonian the other day? If so, good work.

Vitalogy-

I have not. We don't receive the Oregonian. At church yesterday I was approached by several people wondering if that was indeed I. They said..."it sounded just like you."

Guess I have my own distinctive style.

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

It did, and it was signed by Chris Taylor, so it seemed to match...

Finally found some video on this, from ESPN, including video of the home run.

The kids responded to this. Been a better team since we talked over this great story. Nearly all of them heard something about it.

None of them knew the other team gave up their win for the good deed. That had some impact.

Good to hear Missing. Great teachable moment.