As memorable as winning the Babe Ruth 13-under World Series was for the OBRL Kado Hawaii team on Friday, there will be other moments from the trip to Glen Allen, Va., that the kids will look back on.
“On the off days, I tried to make it not so much about the World Series,” Kado coach Donny Kadokawa said.
A trip to a theme park was on the itinerary. “It was a great time because we got to bond with the team more,” shortstop/pitcher Jadon Anzai said. “It was fun getting to know the new guys and bond with them.”
Tours to Georgetown University and the University of Virginia, two schools in the area that Kadokawa has connections to, were also on the schedule. The team parents chartered a bus for the kids to experience what life as a college or minor league baseball player would be like in terms of travel.
“The college facility was beautiful. There were multiple (batting) cages, a bullpen area,” second baseman Rand Gushiken said. “The field was amazing. It was a different experience.”
“It’s all those things that these kids get to do outside of baseball games,” Kadokawa said. “We try and kill two birds with one stone and show these kids that opportunity is there if they put in the work and the effort.”
On the field, there are small differences between Little League and Babe Ruth League. Little League (ages 11-12) has 60-foot basepaths, with the mound being 46 feet away from home plate. Babe Ruth plays on regulation baseball fields with 90-foot basepaths and the mound 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. Little League games are six innings in length and Babe Ruth League games are seven.
“It was crazy, because all the teams are so big,” Gushiken said. “We’re probably one of the smaller teams in the tournament.”
Inside its dugout at RF&P Park, Kado Baseball had a single word posted: War.
It was the word posted in the Mid-Pacific Institute’s dugout when they won three consecutive state titles from 1990 to 1992 under Dunn Muramaru. Kadokawa, who was on the ’90 and ’91 teams, brought it back for the 13U Babe Ruth team’s championship game of the Pacific Southwest Region and the Babe Ruth World Series run.
“It was just going to be a dogfight,” he said about Kado’s 5-1 win over Pittsfield, Mass., in Friday’s championship game.
When Kado was down 1-0 in the first inning, there was no panic after starting pitcher Jonah Brub gave up three consecutive hits to start the game.
“We calmed down because one run’s not that much,” Anzai said. “We came back before, so it’s natural for us to come back again.”
Brub went on to pitch five innings and didn’t allow another run. Kawai Park and Anzai closed out the final two innings, with Anzai recording the final four outs.
“I knew my defense had my back,” Anzai said. “I knew all I needed to do was throw strikes and let the defense do their business.”
The team was also awarded the World Series’ sportsmanship award. After their game against Glen Allen, they helped the stadium crew pick up rubbish in the stands.
“They couldn’t stop praising our kids and our parents for how good our kids were, being respectful and helping the staff,” Kadokawa said. “The coaching staff can’t thank the parents of the team enough. They took care of everything we needed to take care of outside of the field, so it made it easy for us to just do what we had to do on the field.”
The team parents who made the trip also got an assist from a GoFundMe the team set up. According to Kadokawa, an estimated $12,000 to $15,000 was raised for their travel expenses.
“We really wanted to pay back and do well for Hawaii for supporting Kado baseball,” Kadokawa said. “Doing what we had to do to bring the World Series championship back to Hawaii, it was amazing.”
“The feeling of winning is a feeling like nothing else,” Gushiken said.
