Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Cory Gearrin will be the special guest for the 2012 baseball banquet at his high school alma mater, Rhea County, and Golden Eagles football legend Andy Kelly will serve as emcee for the Jan. 20 event. Fans are encouraged to bring items for Gearrin to sign. That part of the event will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at the Evensville school, and it also will include a silent auction and door prizes. Tickets cost $20 ($15 for ages 10-under) and are available at www.facebook.com/rheabaseball or by calling 280-6712 or 309-9724. Proceeds will go toward funding a baseball building and batting cages at the school.
Softball
• Former Soddy-Daisy slowpitch softball slugger Stan “Pinch” Harvey died Thursday at his home in Alexis, N.C., at the age of 69. He had had heart problems and other medical issues for a number of years, according to Tommy Cox, who managed the Kobax team with which Harvey came to prominence in the early 1970s. A service will be held at 3 p.m. today at Woodlawn Funeral Home in Mount Holly, N.C., for Harvey, who is in the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame. One of his sons, Bryan, had an outstanding major league baseball pitching career, most notably as the closer for the Angels. Cox recalled the elder Harvey as “an old country boy who never changed. He had a lackadaisical nature that never let pressure or prestige make any difference to him.” Harvey started playing softball for a team sponsored by a small service station in Soddy, Cox recalled, and when Kobax started pulling together the top local talent, “we went to tournaments all over the South and to two national tournaments, and Pinch and Ron Patterson made all-tournament almost every time.” Harvey went to North Carolina to play for Richard Howard and the Howard’s Furniture powerhouse, and he later worked for Duke Power.
General
• The 2012 class of the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame will be inducted at the organization’s annual banquet Feb. 27 at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Special awards including male and female athletes of the year will be presented along with the 22 inductees; announcements of those will be forthcoming. Tickets cost $35 and are available by calling organization president John Farr at 875-9282.