McCauley, Eddie

Eddie McCauley from Louisville, Kentucky was regarded as easily the best left fielder at the highest level of softball in the Bluegrass and the surrounding region for a solid decade between the years of 1984 and 1995.

Eddie began his career with Jack's of Louisville at the ripe young age of 18 an quickly turned many softball heads by being named to the Kentucky Invitational All-Tournament team during Jack's championship run through the prestigious Derby City event.

Mr. McCauley was known for his defensive skills while being equipped with a great arm, plenty of speed, and a knack for the spectacular plays--most notably his ample attempts at climbing left field fences and robbing many disappointed hitters of extra bases and/or home runs.

His fence scaling ability saved the day for eventual 1991 ASA Major Champs, Riverside Paving TPS of Louisville, in a pivotal winners' bracket game in Decatur, Alabama at the ASA Major Nationals. Besides "the catch" and other stellar plays in Decatur, Eddie also showed off his hitting skills by smashing 11 home runs and knocking in 22 runs on the way to a sizzling .731 batting average.

His five-tooled skill set landed him on numerous All-Tournament teams throughout his career, which included a 2nd team All-American award when Riverside finished 4th at the ASA Major in 1993. Riverside went on to win three Major National Championships and McCauley was a big part of their early championships on a state and national level.

Other All-Tournament selections of note included those at Bowling Green's Spring Classic, the Lake Cumberland Classic, KSN's All-State selection in 1993, USSSA B Nationals, and the Shively, KIT, and LIT's--the latter three closer to home in Louisville.

In between his winning beginning in 1984 with Jack's at the KIT and his two Nationals with Riverside (his last being in 1994 at the ASA Major Nationals in Lawton, Oklahoma), Eddie also won the ASA Midwest with Angilos in 1989 and several events with Riverside including Lexington's Thoroughbred Classic, Pineville's Mt. Laurel Festival, and Campbellsville's H&W.

Perhaps McCauley's best individual performance was a 2nd place finish for Riverside in Cincinnati at the Cincy Softball News where he had led the weekend tournament in hitting at .813 with 15 long balls, 40 RBIs, and a single game record of 6 homers and 16 RBIs.

Congrats to "Emo" or "Farmer" as his teammates fondly called Eddie for his accomplishments on and off the field. Players and coaches alike summarized Eddie McCauley this way, "Eddie was humble, determined, and committed to his teams, and he always gave 110 percent." Treating every individual with the same respect and playing harder than anyone else on the field truly sets Mr. McCauley apart.