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34 to be inducted into Butler County Softball Hall of Fame

Harden among those to be honored for making impact on county softball.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 12:27 AM Thursday, September 9, 2010

HAMILTON — Charlie Harden was referred to as a “legend” when the Butler County Softball Hall of Fame Committee announced its induction class of 2010 on Wednesday night, Sept. 8, at Hamilton Freshman School.

Harden denied that he fit such a description, but there is no denying that he and the 33 other men and women who will be recognized by the Hall of Fame have made a major impact on softball in Butler County.

This will be the first class to be inducted since 1996.

Harden played and managed for 52 years, mostly with OCASCO (Ohio Casualty), the team he led to two state championships and a city title.

“But the (accomplishment) I was as much proud of as any,” Harden said, “was when we had a church team (First Church of the Nazarene) in Division III. I had three sons on the team — Steve, Richard and Tim, who is deceased — and we won the city championship in 1989.”

The induction ceremonies will be Sunday, Oct. 24, at Tori’s Station in Fairfield, starting with a social hour at 2 p.m., followed by dinner at 3 and the program at 4.

Tickets are $30 each and can be purchased at Clark’s Sporting Goods in Hamilton, Symmes Tavern in Fairfield and Don’s Grocery and Carry Out in Darrtown.

The first Pappy Spears Award will go to Terri Adams.

“My mother taught me to keep score,” she said, “and I started keeping score when I was 13 and worked my way up to being Pappy’s assistant.”

Spears, among many other things, directed the ASA women’s national tournament at Thomson Park over Labor Day weekends.

Following are the other persons and teams to be honored:

Women’s fastpitch: Bob Walton, Amy Weitzel

Women’s slowpitch: Lesley Mucha, Lori Saylor, Theresa Wilhelm, Kim Winkler

Men’s fastpitch: Matt Arminio, Pete Spoerl

Men’s slowpitch: Barry Allen, Bill Burdine, Sr., Dave Grathwohl, Charlie Harden, Ronnie Hibbard, Jr., Doug Hicks, Ronnie Ledford, Craig Mills, Kenny Rose, Sr., Dick Schuster, Ed Seversen, Mark “Bo” Smith, Mark “Kraut” Smith, Ritchie White, Walt Wurzelbacher

Umpires: Gale Lindsay, Bob Stanger

Hall of Honor: Hamilton High School girls fastpitch team, 1985 state champion; Dry Dock men’s slowpitch team, 1999-2000 Metro champion; Poor Michael’s women’s slowpitch team, 1984 ASA national champion/Michael Jonson; Don Beckett/Don’s Carryout; Don Keene/Keene’s Sporting Goods; Nick Dadabo/Chester’s Pizza; Dr. Stephen Boyd/Boyd Chiropractic; Ralph Cassano; Bill Deems; Bob Long

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