On the outfield wall at Les Murakami Stadium are images of the Rainbows’ greats of the past.

There’s Murakami and his No. 11, Derek Tatsuno and his No. 16, Kolten Wong and the No. 14 and the 1980 team that went to the College World Series.

It could be argued that another image should be there — that of Gerald Ako, who wore No. 14 from 1974 to 1977.

“He should be up on the wall,” long-time UH baseball analyst Pal Eldredge said. “Gerald Ako started the whole thing off.”

Murakami and Ron Nomura, the catcher for both Ako and Tatsuno, concurred.

“He’s a pioneer to the program,” Nomura said. “He’s one that deserves to be up there.”

What can’t be argued is that UH baseball exists today because of the fusion of Murakami’s big-picture vision and the program-altering talents of Ako and Tatsuno.

Murakami said there’s “no question” that the right-hander Ako and the lefty Tatsuno were UH’s best 1-2 pitching combo in their only season together in 1977.

“You go out there (with them), you don’t expect to lose,” the legendary skipper said. 

Nomura said: “These two guys helped put UH on the map.”

Murakami said they provided fans at the time with “the greatest weekend. Everybody waited for the weekend because they knew they would see Gerald and Derek.”

The program’s sudden growth also started a popularity shift away from the Hawaii Islanders, a long-standing Triple-A franchise at the time.

Ako and Tatsuno still populate the UH record book.

>> ERA (minimum 50 innings pitched): Ako 2.00 (third), Tatsuno 2.04 (fourth);

>> Innings pitched: Tatsuno 402.1 (first), Ako 356.2 (fourth);

>> Strikeouts: Tatsuno 541 (first, with second at 332); Ako 278 (tied sixth);

>> Wins: Tatsuno 40 (first); Ako 34 (tied for second);

>> Complete games: Tatsuno 34 (first); Ako 26 (third);

>> Shutouts: Tatsuno 10 (first); Ako 6 (second);

The duo did it all, with big-time wins before standing-room-only crowds and signature games, such as Ako’s 15-inning victory against Florida State in which he threw 198 pitches, and Tatsuno’s 14-inning win against USC in which he threw 232 pitches. Ako also went 43 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.

The pair brought their legendary status from Aiea, where they helped Na Alii to a 20-0 season and the school’s first state title in 1973, to Manoa, where their memories are everlasting.

The first recruit

“That time (1974) I had only one scholarship and I felt Gerald was the best pitcher,” Murakami said from his home last week. “Of course, Punahou had a pitcher and hitter (in Glenn Goya).

“It came down to those two guys and the reason why I picked Gerald Ako was because I felt he was the best pitcher. I wasn’t looking for a hitter. I was just looking for a pitcher more than anything else.”

“What a mistake he made,” the self-deprecating Ako said, noting that Goya enjoyed a stellar career at Colorado State, leading the nation in batting at .485 in 1977.

“I was just thankful to be there,” Ako added. “When I was small, I used to read about UH baseball. I remember the name Jimmy Miyake. … I was kind of a guy that was always intimidated by all these things. This is UH , this is not high school. Can I play? Can I make it there or not?”

Did Murakami make the right decision? “I know I did,” he said.

Tatsuno makes history

Tatsuno says his favorite game was “probably my last start in the regionals, winning 20 games.”

With UH’s 4-3 victory over Indiana State in the Midwest Regional on May 25, 1979, Tatsuno became the first player in NCAA history to win 20 games in a single season. He also set a single-season NCAA strikeout record with 234 after fanning 10 Sycamores.

“The coach for Indiana State mentioned Larry Bird was going to be on the team,” Tatsuno said. (On a dare, Bird did play a game a month earlier and went 1-for-2 with two RBIs.)

It also was the first time a UH team in any sport won an NCAA postseason game.

The other hero in that game? Freshman first baseman Howard Dashefsky, who broke a 3-all tie with a homer in the eighth.

Ako’s 198-pitch game

The epic game on April 4, 1977, was prolonged each time by the Rainbows, who tied it with two runs in the bottom of the ninth and single runs in the 13th and 14th.

“After the nine, I was just going to go out there because (I thought) we just going to play one more … and then one more … and then one more,” Ako said.

The ’Bows won it on Mike Kelly’s two-out RBI double and Ako completed the game allowing eight hits and one earned run while walking four and striking out 14.

And his arm? “No, it wasn’t sore,” Ako said.

Tatsuno’s 232-pitch game

Tatsuno’s 14-inning win against USC three days later almost became a footnote.

Tatsuno said he got “bachi” (bad luck) in the game.

The Rainbows led 6-0 after one inning and 6-2 going into the seventh when Tatsuno’s bad luck struck.

Tatsuno said the guys in the dugout told him, “When this guy comes up, you gotta strike him out. I said, ‘Why?’ Because he’s going for the hat trick so you have to strike him out. So I eventually strike him out. I look towards our dugout and all our players are throwing their hats out of the dugout. I was kind of chuckling. … So I think, eh, bachi.”

USC scored five runs in the seventh to take a 7-6 lead and Murakami headed toward the mound.

“(Carl) Furutani usually comes out (on the first mound visit). Seeing that Murakami was coming, I said, ‘I’m done.’”

“I thought he threw enough,” Murakami said.

But Nomura interceded.

“He was our best guy. He still had good stuff,” Nomura said. “Leave him in, he’s good, he’s fine.”

Murakami then turned to Tatsuno. “I told Murakami, I’m fine.”

How fine? After getting out of the seventh, Tatsuno pitched the next seven innings, allowing one hit and retiring 17 in a row at one point. He finished allowing 12 hits, six earned runs and five walks while striking out 14.

His arm? “It was OK,” Tatsuno said.

Duck soup

It was a game that Tatsuno started shaky but got the last laugh in, striking out 20 Oregon Ducks in a 9-1 win on May 20, 1978.

“Those days they used to rag on each other,” he said. “In the first inning, I gave up three hits and I gave up one run. And they were popping off, ‘What’s his name. I never heard of this guy.’”

“So from the second inning to the ninth, I shut them down … struck out 20. And so our dugout, was like, ‘Yeah, you know who he is. You know his name.’”

“There were not many balls hit from the second to the ninth. So Vern Ramie was playing in right field, Ricki Bass in center — for them the game became boring. because there were no balls hit in the outfield. So they were talking story with each other with their gloves on their hats. Talking story in the outfield.”

Same, yet different

“The two guys were special,” Nomura said, but “they’re different.”

“Gerald was more quiet,” Murakami said.

Said Nomura: “Off the field, when he’s not pitching, (Tatsuno was a) rascal, prankster. Gerald, after the game we’re in the locker room drinking beer, Ako would go to the library.”

“Not necessarily to study, but I did go to the library,” Ako admitted.

However, when they took the mound they were all business.

Ako was so workmanlike that he really doesn’t have a favorite game.

“I just kinda remember the dugout, the locker rooms,” Ako said. “For me, the games kinda came and went. You go out, you put everything on the fleld, and when the game is over, it’s done. You’re moving on.”

Murakami said Ako was the “master of the change of speed. Not talking about a changeup, just a change of speed.”

As for Tatsuno, Nomura said Tatsuno “never said anything. He would just nod his head.”

“They both had the mental part of the game, the mound presence,” Nomura said. “These guys took control of the game, the tempo.”

Nomura said the amount of energy that Tatsuno would generate on his “torque on his pitching form was unbelievable.

“He lifted his leg, his back was facing you and he’s looking side-eye downhill at you … then all of a sudden it’s flying across the plate. When it rained, you could hear, the (ball) go zzzzzz, the rain spinning off the ball. That’s what that guy had, tremendous spin rate.

“I got arthritis up to this day because of him.”

“He was mystical,” Ako said of Tatsuno “Derek was the best pitcher I ever played with and I’ve ever seen. Man, this guy, as Les Murakami called him, he was the Pied Piper … whenever he pitches, everybody comes to see. It was him that took us over that hump, to put UH on the national headlines.”

Epilogue

Tatsuno skipped his senior year at UH to turn pro. He was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the summer of 1979 and was offered $100,000. But Tatsuno decided to sign with a semi-pro team in Japan.

“It was substantially more than San Diego,” Tatsuno said.

According to an article by former Star-Advertiser writer Ferd Lewis, Tatsuno got a package that promised financial security, including a reported $750,000 guarantee.

Tatsuno played 2½ years in Japan, where the staff altered his pitching delivery from three-quarters to over-the-top.

Tatsuno said the catchers “were having difficulty handling my fastball, which was a moving fastball, a live fastball.”

“My thing is, well, if you think the catcher can’t catch my fastball, what do you think the hitters are going to do (with it)?” Tatsuno said.

After a year and half of haggling, he decided to “go with the flow” and then after two years decided “I’m done. I’m not coming back.”

He said his arm wasn’t the same after that.

Upon his return, Tatsuno signed with the Brewers’ minor league club and played from 1982 to 1983. He also had stints with the Hawaii Islanders as part of the Pirates and White Sox organizations in 1986 and 1987.

He retired last December as a visitor information specialist at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

He ran into Ako, who lives on Kauai, about six months ago at the airport.

Ako played six years in the minors, including for the Triple-A Vancouver Canadians in the Brewers organization, as well as in the Mexican League.

He said he played against eventual greats such as Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and Ryne Sandberg.

“I put a lot of them in the big leagues,” Ako said. “They gotta thank me.”

He also got to be a roommate with another great, Royals Hall of Fame reliever Dan Quisenberry.

Ako was a union agent for the HGEA and became the Kauai division chief, moving there in 1991. He retired in December 2019.

As for being on the wall at Les Murakami Stadium, Ako, ever humble, said:

“My response would be you’re not up there because you’re not good enough to be up there. If you were, you’d (be) up there. That’s not what we played for.”