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Vegas 45s' Raula Turnier Gambled on Softball ˆ and Won

May 1, 2000 – Senior Softball-USA

LAS VEGAS ˆ Many senior players start when they are kids, stop playing when they begin raising families and come back to softball later in life.

Not Raula Turnier.

Turnier, 52, didn't start playing softball until she was 20, about 4 years after she was married, and has been hooked ever since.

"I got married when I was 16," said Raula, who is still with Fred Turnier, left-center fielder for the 55+ Skinny Dugans of Las Vegas.

Today Raula plays left field for the Las Vegas 45s and bats second in the lineup.

Raula, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, moved with her family to Las Vegas about 20 years ago.

"I was born in Oakland and grew up in Union City," said Raula. "I met Fred when I was a freshman in high school and we got married in my senior year."

After they were married and had a daughter and twin sons, Raula decided to start playing softball and went door-to-door to get together a fast-pitch women's team.

"The team ˆ Rely Construction of Milpitas (California) ˆ stayed together for 14 years, first as a fast-pitch and then as a slow-pitch team," said Raula.

Sports is a common thread in the Turnier family. While Fred and Raula play senior softball, their daughter played softball, one son was drafted by the Braves organization and plays in an Independent League in upstate New York, and another son was drafted for track at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).

"We are all athletes," said Raula, "we just found our own niches."

After she moved to Las Vegas, Raula played with several teams before discovering women's senior softball a few years ago.

"I started going to the senior tournaments and saw women playing," she said. "They were slower than younger women's teams, but the talent was there and that was what got me excited."

But there were some obstacles in helping to start a senior women's team.

"There are so many women playing today with the kids because they don't want to commit to the seniors label," said Raula. "But once they see us play they want to join. In the future, I see women's senior softball being even bigger than the men's division."

Raula joined the Las Vegas 45s last year and played on one of the International Senior Softball-USA teams that toured the Hawaiian Islands in 1999.

"I watched the men's teams play during the International Tour to Germany in 1998 and I wanted to play so badly that I stood on the sidelines waiting for a foul ball just so I could chase it," she said.

The next year, Raula did play.

"There were nine women players on the international teams playing in Hawaii," she said.

Raula played right field and batted second on the Nevada team, which had two other women players and finished second in the international tournament.

Back at home, Raula loves living in Las Vegas, and found it a great place to raise a family.

"I love the idea of a 24-hour town," she said. "You can go shopping anytime." Raula said that casinos "are just there" to most Las Vegas residents and seem as commonplace as 7-Elevens. "They help the economy," she said, " and they are fun to go see when friends and family come to town. Then we can play tourist and visit the Strip."