Matthew Reichert ’28
Staff Writer
In November of 1887 Yale played Harvard in a football game at the Polo Grounds. Both teams were undefeated and various Chicagoan alumni congregated inside the Farragut Boating Club to await the results of this decisive contest. The score came back: Yale won 17-8.
Amidst the inevitable fracas that results among rival fans following the most important game of the year, some broom-laden man of Harvard aroused the ardour of one of the present Yale graduates. This Yalie, in possession of an old boxing glove (For good luck? For a fight after the game? We may never know), chose to launch this object at the defiant Cantabridgian.
The Harvard man responded to the indignity by striking the projectile with the broom he happened to have in his possession.
George Hancock, a reporter at the scene, then had an idea. The broom would be the bat, the boxing glove the ball, and they would play “indoor baseball.” As a variation of baseball to be played amidst the northern cold in the winter: this is how softball began.
I tell this story because I believe it must have inspired Jon Ladino when he put together the schedule for the Holy Cross softball team. I imagine he sought a return for his team to the sport’s winter origins. Why else would Holy Cross go to New Britain, Connecticut on February 28 to play Stony Brook in the Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) Round Robin?
Before encountering this cold front, the Crusaders will first play in the Upstate Classic against Harvard and South Carolina-Upstate in Spartanburg and then, also in Spartanburg, they will play Harvard again, Wofford, and Robert Morris in the Sparkle City Invitational.
Starting March 6, the Crusaders will play in the Spartan round-up against Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), Norfolk State, and North Dakota in Norfolk, Virginia. In between though, assuming it is not snowed out, the Crusaders will participate in a winter tournament in New England.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Holy Cross’ participation in the CCU Round Robin isn’t an act to honor George Hancock or two Ivy Leaguers who chose to bring random objects to a boating club while they awaited the results of a football game. Maybe, he just wants his team to get all the practice they can get.
He’d have good reason for this attitude. Last year, the Holy Cross Softball team went 1-17 in conference play. I’d say that was too few wins, but the plural wouldn’t apply. Outside of the conference, depending on how you look at it, the team didn’t do much better with an overall record of 8-37 (Glass half empty: they only won eight games in total. Glass half full: they improved by 700% against nonconference opponents).
The voters for the Patriot League preseason awards and the preseason poll are not much more optimistic about this year. Holy Cross had zero players make the preseason All-League team; they are projected to finish second to last in the conference.
How do you measure success in a season like this? The typical platitude offered to a team after a bad year is that there is nowhere to go but up (assuming losing every conference game is not a realistic possibility). But, how far up does this team have to go for this to be considered a good one?
You could say that any improvement is a step in the right direction. However, I don’t think rooting for two conference wins is all that exciting a goal to reach for. I also don’t think this is the only goal this team can reach for.
March 21, the ‘26 Crusaders begin conference play at Bucknell. I have lamented the lone conference win the ‘25 Crusaders were able to muster. But, I should mention that that one win came against Army. The Black Knights finished with the best record in the conference.
For one game, Holy Cross captured something that made them better than the best team in the league. I don’t think it’s too much to hope they can capture it again, capture it for longer, maybe capture it for a season.
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
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