Saturday, July 24, 1999

Strange opener at Metro

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CWA wins in 8; Earls honored

BY SAM MELLINGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Reindl Stamping's Brad Young dives safley back to first with Western Hills Auto and Truck's Rick Moffit reaching for the ball. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Officially, it was the second day of action. But Friday was the beginning of the Bud Light/Metropolitan Cincinnati Softball Championship Tournament in two ways.

        First, it was the first full day of games, and Cincinnati Communication Workers of America found out first-hand that the Metro is much more than the “fun leagues” the team was used to.

        And second, opening ceremonies took place to honor John Earls, who played for last year's Major Division winner, Watanabe Optical. Earls, 38, died from liver cancer a few months after the tournament.

        But before the official opening, CWA recorded a strange, extra-innings win over Environmental Air Products. Metro home teams are supposed to keep the official book, but CWA forgot.

        “The guy who usually does that for us had to work, and we just didn't have anybody who thought about it. It was our fault,” CWA's Robbie Harris said.

        After EAP's final out in the top of the seventh, CWA celebrated on the mound, thinking the team had won by one run. But EAP, which was keeping score, had the score tied at 13.

        “We didn't keep a book, so we couldn't argue with them,” Harris said.

Western Hills' Jimmy Gant shakes the dirt out of his ear after sliding into second base. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        But CWA could win outright, and that's exactly what it did. EAP retired all three CWA hitters in the bottom of the seventh and added three runs in the top of the eighth — two on a home run by Scott Vollrath — to go up 16-13.

        But CWA answered with a run in the bottom of the eighth and had two men on when Harris stepped to the plate.

        “I was just trying for a base hit,” Harris said. “I ain't no home-run hitter.”

        But that's what he was in the game's final at-bat, giving CWA a 17-13 win with a three-run homer to right. After he touched first base and made the win official, Harris was mobbed by his celebrating teammates.

        “The Met, man, it gets you pumped up,” Harris said, explaining his sudden power. “This is a big deal, I'm telling you. This isn't like those fun leagues we're used to playing in where we don't really worry about wins and losses. This is big.”

        The Metro turned sentimental about an hour later in the ceremony honoring Earls. Several of the firefighter's co-workers were dressed in formal attire and drove a truck onto the field after the field officially was named in Earls' honor.

        “He was only a firefighter a year and a half, but there was nobody who knew him that didn't love him,” said Rick Clements, a firefighter who knew Earls for 20 years.

        “He was one of the best softball players in the nation,” said Mike Marshall, another firefighter on hand to honor Earls, “but he was a much better person, husband and father than he was softball player.”

       

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