Seasons in the Sun

Chrissy (Leander) Connole was one of our best players on the softball team at Lerner Newspapers. Connole was excellent offensively and defensively. Connole was usually our 1st baseman, although I believe she also played a little 3rd base at times and she probably could play any of the positions pretty well.
At Lerner, she was a 'sales assistant', but she was more like a sales office manager. Leander was highly respected throughout the company. Everything around her ran smoothly and she never lost her cool. Connole was much the same on the field.
Connole was also the victim of one of my worst plays ever as a pitcher. The batter barely hit the ball, forcing me to charge the ball. I picked it up and made a short and bad throw to the outside of the base (which is the worst place to throw the ball). The runner ran right into Connole's extended arm. I am not sure if she hyper-extended it or what (it wasn't broken), but it caused a lot of pain and an Emergency Ward visit that night.
If she happens to read this, she will probably grimace in pain (and maybe even curse me). All of these years later, I still feel bad about that throw. Connole deserved a better memento from softball than that.

Chris Connole displaying excellent batting form in Skokie, IL-mid 1990's.