By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - To honor Bill Cappel's 62 years of devotion to Tristate baseball and softball, naming Covington's newest ball fields for him wasn't enough.

As Mr. Cappel marked his 90th birthday Tuesday, Covington officials presented him with a key to the city, read a proclamation in his honor and even provided a police escort as they officially named the Bill Cappel Youth Sports Complex at 43rd and Decoursey streets after him.

"I call him the Sportsman of the Century," said Bill Eilers, publicity director for the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame.

Recently, that moniker was inscribed on a plaque that the local hall of fame presented to its only surviving charter member.

"If there's ever a saint on Earth, I think it's Bill Cappel," said Mr. Eilers, noting the ballplayer's legendary devotion to his Catholic faith, family and community.

While reveling in the reminiscing of the many teams he played for, managed, umpired or served as a volunteer groundskeeper, Mr. Cappel - the second baseman for a 1939 world championship fast-pitch softball team - shrugged aside accolades.

"I want to share the glory with the people who did a lot of the work for the ball park out in Latonia," Mr. Cappel said. "That is a monument to their hard work."

Covington Mayor Butch Callery suggested the City Commission rename Covington's new youth sports complex in honor of Mr. Cappel last month, after receiving petitions signed by more than 2,000 people.

"Bill's done a lot for the youth of Northern Kentucky and Covington, and for women, in particular," Mr. Callery said.

In 1933, Mr. Cappel organized women's softball in Covington, and some 30 years later, he founded the Covington Major Girls League at Meinken Field. Three of those teams won national championships.

Mr. Cappel collected his own world championship trophy in 1939 when Nick Carr's Kentucky Boosters of Covington won the world fast-pitch championship. More than 10,000 turned out for the championship game at Soldiers Field in Chicago.

Today, Mr. Cappel's $1,000 world championship trophy is on display at Covington's recreation office, while other team photos and memorabilia from that game can be found at the International Softball Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Eventually, the team will be memorialized as part of a series of historic murals on the Covington floodwall.

Two years in a row, Mr. Cappel also won a contest at Crosley Field for the person who could run the bases the fastest.

"I could run like a deer then," said Mr. Cappel, as he showed off his new Louisville Slugger cane that was a 90th birthday present from his nephew. "Now I can hardly walk."

A World War II Army soldier who was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star, Mr. Cappel organized ballgames for soldiers while serving in Europe and Africa.

"He was always playing softball somewhere or umpiring," Mr. Eilers said. "For years, he took it on his own to work on the ball diamonds in Covington. He raked the infield and put the foul lines down. And he never charged the city anything."

"He did a lot of things on his own, and he did it all without a car," Mr. Callery said of Mr. Cappel.

A devout Catholic, Mr. Cappel still lives in his boyhood home and dotes on his older sisters, Ann Schnell, 91, and Helen Cappel Janson, 97, who also live in Northern Kentucky. He says that he "got so wrapped up in sports" that he never married.

"I got entangled in foul lines instead of marriage vow lines," he quipped.

Although he tried to retire from officiating local tournaments at age 72, he umpired his last event two years later, when the umpire failed to show for a March of Dimes charity sno-ball tournament.

"It was 9 degrees below zero, but the game was close, so I stayed warm," he said.

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com