SARASOTA, Fla. - The last Cincinnati Reds fan to leave Ed Smith Stadium did not turn out the lights.
The last fan to leave the stadium after the Reds played their final game there Thursday, April 2, was rolled out in a wheelchair, proudly and sadly. Karen Eutsler is 27. She is from Franklin and is a mammoth Reds fan. She also has cerebral palsy.
Karen has come to Sarasota, Fla., with her parents the past four years and hasn't missed a home game, sitting in the special section down the rightfield line.
She wears a springtraining hat with Sarasota and the Reds on it, but Thursday, she refused to put it on.
The Reds and the City of Sarasota parted ways. Because the Reds and Sarasota couldn't come to an agreement on a new or vastly improved stadium, the Reds are moving their spring-training operation to Goodyear, Ariz.
"I'm so sad," she says. "They'll always be my favorite team, but I won't get to see them in spring training anymore."
Her spot in Ed Smith was a magnet for fans, players who sign autographs and the stadium ushers.
And the ushers gave her the ultimate going-away present Thursday.
The ushers present a Silver Walnut Award (a real walnut painted silver) to an usher who performs extra duties - such as the usher who once crawled under a seat to find the dropped dentures of an 80-year-old fan.
On Thursday, the Silver Walnut was presented to Karen, and an usher proudly pushed her out the gate, the last fan out.
Every year, WLW-AM (700) does a radio show for a week from Fin Daddy's restaurant near the park. Every night, Karen is there.
This year, behind the table where the show emanates, there is a Power-Point presentation on the Reds. Karen did it, using the Reds media guide.
For four years, Karen and her parents have come to Sarasota for three months, with six of the weeks spent mostly at the ballpark.
"We won't be going to Arizona," says Karen's mother, Barb. "This is a special place for her, and we just don't know what we're going to do now. It is just so sad."
On her way to Thursday's game, Barb wrote what she called a sad poem about the Reds leaving Sarasota. Before the game, she tucked it into the pants pocket of Reds owner Bob Castellini.
As they wheeled Karen out after the game, she lifted her right hand in a goodbye gesture, but she didn't look back.
Play FOX Fantasy Baseball today
