BURLINGTON — The wisdom of a reporter stepping out from behind the notepad and becoming part of a story is dubious at best.

Stepping in front of a softball hurtling toward you at close to 60 mph from less than 40 feet away isn’t nearly as wise.

Yet here I was digging in, hoping Burlington-Edison pitcher Lindsey Dawson did not subscribe to the Bob Gibson/Don Drysdale theory of pitching where the batter who digs in has an early start on his own grave. The last time I’d swung a bat at any pitch that didn’t have an arc on it, I was at least 20 years younger.

I choked up on the bat as far as the handle would allow and chopped at the ball as it whizzed plateward, finishing my swing about the same time the catcher was throwing the ball back.

Dawson, as it turns out, has a good poker face to go with a stellar repertoire of pitches. She didn’t break out laughing.

This debacle came together over a couple weeks, starting with an e-mail from a reader. University of Washington pitcher Danielle Lawrie, fresh off a national championship, had pitched to members of the Seattle media, to give an idea of what it’s like to look down the gun at an elite softball pitcher.

Bryant Johnson, the voice of local sports at KWLE 1340 in Anacortes, organized the event. We may not have a national champion pitcher in the area, but we do have a state champion in Dawson.

Having watched Dawson mow down hitters for the past two years while leading the Tigers to back-to-back state final appearances, I was definitely curious to see what it felt like to stand in the box against her.

Johnson and the Skagit Valley Herald’s recreation reporter, Vince Richardson, joined me in the endeavor. None of us had any illusions coming in. All three of us went in with the same goal.

“It wasn’t about trying to kill the ball. It was about trying to make contact, which was nearly impossible,” Richardson said. “It happens so fast, so quick. She goes into her wind-up, and then the mitt cracks behind you. You hope to be able to get a piece of it. You stick the bat out and hope the ball runs into it.”

As it turned out, the timing was the easiest part. None of us ever got that down, but it was far easier than trying to figure out where the ball was going to move. I swung at one pitch I thought was right down the middle, however we have photographic evidence that the ball hit the catcher’s mitt a foot outside.

My first trip up was pretty hopeless — I was able to hold off on an outside pitch, but wasn’t close to touching the ball. I think I saw a couple of them. The highlight of my second at-bat, after “staying alive” by dribbling a few balls foul, was getting solid “metal” on one pitch. I was still a split second late and the ball carried off well foul onto a different field, but at least someone had to run and pick it up.

With each year that goes by, that ball will fly a little closer to the field on which we were standing. By the time Dawson finishes her pitching career, this part of the story will end with the ball tucking in just inside the right-field foul line for a double. It gets a little farther from home and a few inches closer to fair each time I tell it now.

Richardson, a former college football defensive lineman, had the most success, hitting three balls fair. During two “at-bats,” he hit one back to Dawson and two slow grounders to the right side.
“He was pretty intimidating,” Dawson said laughing.

Like mine, Johnson’s best contacts were harmless fouls.

“The result was what I expected, a complete demolition, a complete embarrassment and more respect for a player I didn’t think I could have any more for,” Johnson said. “It’s fun to take on athletes who we respect ... who are very dominant.”

I got answers to the questions I had coming in. Would I be able to see the ball? Yes. Would I be able to tell where it’s going? No. Would I survive the experience? Yes, thanks to Dawson not throwing too far inside, although I probably would have swung before it hit me. Will I feel a pang of sympathy for each batter I see Dawson strike out next year? Absolutely.

Would I want to try to make a career out of hitting pitches rifled homeward by the likes of Dawson? It’s a lot easier to write about it.