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At the end of the year, I give out awards to Hawaii people who have made history, preserved it, written about it or, in this case, all three.
Because the World Series is this week, I thought I’d give out my first award today, as it involves baseball.
Perfect Game Award
It’s hard to imagine, but it was 50 years ago that Punahou won the State High School Baseball Championship with a perfect game.
A perfect game is very rare. It’s a step above a no-hitter. Not only did Punahou prevent its opponent, Saint Louis, from getting a hit, but not one of its batters reached base on a walk or error, or was hit by a pitch.
Over nine innings, 27 Crusaders came to the plate, and 27 failed to reach base.
A perfect game-winning high school championship had not been done before, and it hasn’t been done since. It’s truly historic. And for that I give the Perfect Game Award to the 1972 Punahou baseball team.
Low expectations
In the book “Going Together,” Ed Moore provides many details of Punahou’s 1972 perfect baseball season. First, he said, no one expected the team to do all that well.
Coach Dave Eldredge, who had led the Buff ’n Blue to multiple state baseball championships, had retired at the end of 1971, and it was 29-year-old Doug Bennett’s first year as varsity head coach. Yukio Hamada, also a newbie, and Jim Doole, former head coach himself, were Bennett’s assistant coaches.
The team had lost two starting pitchers and three starting position players to graduation. Only four starters returned. A preseason poll expected the team to finish in fourth place. So, it was a surprise that it went undefeated through the regular season.
Taking the field
The championship game took place April 29, 1972, at the old Honolulu Stadium at King and Isenberg streets. About 2,500 were in the stands at 7:30 p.m. as the teams took the field.
Bennett said he easily picked ace junior Glenn Goya to pitch. He was a terrific, all-around player and had won the four games he pitched that season.
“In practice, pitching coach Jim Doole said that the best pitch in baseball is a strike,” southpaw Goya recalls.
“My strategy was to throw strikes. And if they’re going to beat me, they’re going to have to get base hits. So, I tried to remain calm and relaxed and just focus on throwing strikes, being in balance and ready to field a hit ball near me. That’s all I really concentrated on.”
Catcher Mike Moss compared Goya to Clark Kent: “Mild-mannered, humble and unassuming off the field, but put a uniform on him, give him a bat, ball and glove, and he turns into Superman.
“Although Glenn had two basic pitches, fastball and curve, he could throw them with varying speeds and spin,” Moss says. “He could make his fastball tail away from right-handers and into lefties.”
Game-saving plays
A perfect game does not mean the losing team didn’t hit the ball. It just means the defense is able to catch or throw out all the runners. Goya struck out eight Crusaders. His team had to make some great plays to keep the other 19 from reaching base.
“I remember starting off the game,” Goya continued. “The first batter, Eric Texidor, hit a rocket to left field. I thought it was going to be a home run. Fortunately, the strong tradewinds kept it in the park. Outfielder Jay Higgins ran towards the fence and caught the ball on the warning track.”
With two outs in the third inning, Crusader pitcher Mike Gipaya launched a drive to deep center. Punahou outfielder Earl Nakaya caught the ball over his shoulder at the center-field wall.
A Crusader ball hit up the middle in the fourth inning took a bad hop off the pitcher’s rubber, but shortstop Alan Yamashiro stayed with it, going hard to his left and making the throw to first.
The score remained 0-0 through four innings. But in the fifth inning Punahou’s Alan Yamashiro walked with two outs. Higgins came to bat and hit a single. Kerry Komatsubara hit a ground ball to the shortstop, Texidor, who made a bad throw. Yamashiro scored.
Punahou extended its lead in the sixth inning when Mike Moss singled. Mosi Tatupu, who batted .700 in the postseason, hit a double off the left-field fence, scoring Moss.
Seventh inning
In the seventh inning Earl Nakaya tripled to right field and came home on Komatsubara’s double. A wild pitch and passed ball made it 5-0 Punahou.
By now Goya was aware that no Saint Louis batter had reached base. “I was trying to conserve my energy,” Goya said. “All I wanted was to win the game.” He retired the top three batters in the lineup for the third time in the game.
At the end of the seventh inning, the crowd could sense that something special might be brewing, Moore wrote.
In the dugout, looking up at all the zeros on the scoreboard, someone started to say, “Hey look at what Glenn …,” at which point Moss quickly shut him up.
“From then on until the final out, no player would say a word about that as the game progressed, nor would they sit near Glenn. It would not, however, be an easy finish for him.”
Eighth inning
Leading off the eighth, Crusader Danny Phillips lined a hard shot to shallow right field.
Galen Kitamura saw it from second base. “I turned, and Mosi Tatupu dove to make the catch and preserve the perfect game.”
Kitamura believes there are always one or two crucial defensive plays during any no-hitter or perfect game. “Fortunately, we had four or five.”
Ninth inning
The last fielding gem came in the ninth inning. Vernon Yoro led off the ninth inning for Saint Louis. With two strikes, Yoro laid a perfect bunt down the third-base line. “You could literally hear a gasp from the crowd,” Moore said.
Goya knew he had to make the play. “I ran as fast as I could, fielded the ground ball in my right hand and did a 180.
“And as I turned, through the corner of my eye, I saw first base. My arm just followed through with a strike to Benet Ekhammer. He made a long stretch and caught it.”
When umpire William “Stumpy” Cordeiro called him out, the crowd audibly exhaled. One out.
“It was probably the best play I ever made in my life,” Goya believes.
“The second batter was a pinch hitter. And for the first time that game, I ran the count to three balls and one strike. I was behind. I remember feeling really nervous.
“I told myself, just throw strikes. My focus was a little bit off, and the pitch was outside by a few inches. Luckily, the batter swung and popped it up to first base.” Two outs.
It was up to pinch hitter David Nakahara to make or break the perfect game. With two strikes on him, Nakahara swung and missed. Umpire Hal Fitchett’s right arm shot up. “You’re out!”
The game was over. Punahou had won the state championship in a perfect game. Komatsubara remembers Goya raising his fist, then the team mobbed him on the mound. In the stands, Goya’s dad broke down in tears.
“The place went nuts, just nuts,” Moore recalls. “There was bedlam everywhere. The cheering seemed to focus as much on Goya’s performance as the championship.”
Home-plate umpire Hal Fitchett made sure Goya got the game ball.
“A nine-inning perfect game has never happened again at the high school level in the state championship game. And now that they only play seven innings, I don’t think it’ll ever happen again,” Moore said.
Postscript
Ekhammer went on to play ball at Idaho. Moss caught for BYU and made third team all-American. Tatupu traded his spikes for cleats and played 14 seasons in the NFL.
Goya, Kitamura and Yamashiro played at Colorado State. Goya led the country with a .485 batting average in 1977, made first team All-American and played for two years in the Giants organization. He worked in management at First Hawaiian Bank for 40 years.
They reunited on April 29 at Stadium Park to reminisce and unveil the 50th-anniversary book, which had been a closely held secret.
“A perfect game is a collaboration of everybody’s efforts,” Goya believes, “and I was surrounded by a team that made miraculous defensive plays. I could not have pitched the game without the tremendous support of everyone. I am so grateful to have been a part of Punahou’s 1972 baseball team.”
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Bob Sigall is the author of the five “Companies We Keep” books. Send him your comments or suggestions at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
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