By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
“Dr. Dot” is not just a nickname.
For Dot Richardson, playing second base on the U.S. National
Softball team entails a lot of responsibilities: keeping track of
runners, positioning yourself just right, knowing when to cover the
base, where to throw the ball, and performing CPR.
OK, so the CPR requirement rarely comes into play, and only if
you are a licensed orthopedic surgeon like Richardson.
Just as Richardson took the field before the start of the second
inning of Team USA’s game against a group of collegiate
all-stars on June 29, she heard somebody from the coaching staff
call her name. But there was something more urgent in the tone then
just a re-positioning command.
“I knew by the sound of his voice that it was
medical,” Richardson, a former Bruin (class of ’83)
told the Associated Press.
She dropped her glove and sprinted toward the hubbub behind the
first base dugout.
There she found a man lying with his back on the ground. He had
no pulse, wasn’t breathing and was already turning blue. When
Richardson saw another doctor compressing the man’s chest,
she immediately began CPR.
Seventy-year-old Sal Lamendola opened his eyes ““ but just
for a brief moment. He was pronounced dead later Thursday night at
Sisters of Charity Medical Center on Staten Island.
“Life is precious, and we need to live it to the
fullest,” Richardson said. “That gentleman was there
because he was a softball umpire. He was where he wanted to be. God
will take us when it’s our time.
“If I never got back on that field ““ if I had to
stay with him 24 hours ““ I would do that. Because, really,
this is a game,” she said. “But it’s through this
game that we are able to touch so many lives. And that’s what
makes this game incredible.”
Richardson, who stayed with Lamendola until the ambulance came,
found herself standing by the road as the ambulance pulled away.
“All of the sudden, it hit me: I’ve got a game to
play,” she said.
The game had been restarted, with Jennifer McFalls playing in
Richardson’s place.
“The game should have been stopped and all attention
focused on the man,” catcher Michelle Venturella also told
the AP. She added that the team had gathered some things to send to
Lamendola’s family. “The whole team was very upset. We
just felt that was not being very respectful.”
Richardson, however, understood why the game had resumed.
“There were so many people who had come to see us
play,” she said. “We could not help him any more. He
was in God’s hands, and he was in the paramedics’
hands.”
Richardson recalls the scene in “Field of Dreams”
where a ballplayer must choose between sport and medicine. With a
little girl choking in the stands, he stares over the magical
baseline boundary knowing full well that if he crosses the line, he
can never play again.
“I cry every time I see that part,” Richardson said.
“So often, I have been on that line, deciding, “˜Do I go
100 percent with medicine?'”
This isn’t the first time medical duty called during
softball duty. The previous week, on a tour stop outside of Tampa,
Fla., the team meeting was interrupted when Richardson and team
trainer Laura Mincey rushed outside to help a man who had been in a
car accident. The victim turned out to be fine.
Richardson knows that there is no competition between a life and
a game of softball. But she has decided to pursue both. Playing
softball full-time and going through medical school was quite a
challenge. It took Richardson, 38, until recently to officially
become a doctor.
“I have been so lucky that I have not had to forgo my
medical career,” she said. “To be able to represent my
country at the highest level of competition, I have had the best of
both worlds.”
Richardson is one of seven former Bruins on the national
team.
The same game in which Richardson took up double duty was
current sophomore Amanda Freed’s second appearance for Team
USA. Freed joined the squad in mid-tour after completing spring
finals. Also playing for the national team from UCLA are junior
Stacey Nuveman, Christie Ambrosi (1999), Jennifer Brundage
(’95), Lisa Fernandez (’93), and Sheila Cornell-Douty
(’84).
Richardson re-entered the game during the fourth inning, in time
to see Freed pitch her second perfect game. Four other Team USA
pitchers, including assistant coach Fernandez (’93) have
pitched perfect games. Last Saturday against another team of
collegiate All Stars, Fernandez became the second member of the
team to pitch two perfect games.
Freed, an alternate for the Sydney squad, also plays right
field, and pinch hits and runs for Team USA.
Earlier in the year UCLA head coach Sue Enquist said, “I
think Amanda should be on the Olympic team. She’s talented
enough and can do so many things so well.
“When you only have 14 spots, there’s no way you
don’t pick somebody like her.”
Although Freed will not be pitching for the gold medal favorite
US squad in Sydney, by striking out 26 of the 33 batters she has
faced and not allowing a baserunner of any kind, it looks like
Freed is well on her way to proving Enquist right.