[greymule]

When you play sports, you do assume certain risks inherent to the game. In softball, this would include turning your ankle on a base, accidentally colliding with a fielder, taking a bad hop to the eye, running into a fence, etc.

But a deliberate crash is not an inherent risk. Since rules prohibiting contact were clear to everyone, what this moron did is nothing less than criminal, and I hope he is punished severely.

And what kind of guy crashes a woman, anyway? What is he proving? Does he go home and write in his little book that he scored a run in a co-ed softball game?

Around here, if I saw a guy deliberately injure a woman, I'd grab the cell phone right away and call my pre-programmed number for that township's police, because I guarantee they'd soon be trying to break up a brawl.

In a co-ed game a few years ago, a guy smashed a ball right by the head of the woman pitcher (who is also an umpire I often work with). Next time up he rips one up the middle again. But third time up he nails her in the arm, and she drops to the ground in pain. She was crying when they helped her off the field.

Now where is this guy as people from both teams are tending to her as she lies on the mound? Standing on 1B with his hands on his hips, talking to the 1B coach. Never said a word to her.