Last week I wrote about the Columbia Inn All-Stars, who played softball games against a team from the Honolulu Symphony and another against the cast and crew of “Magnum, P.I.”
Two readers told me other memorable baseball stories. One is from 1987, when Mayor Frank Fasi’s team played Gov. John Waihee’s squad. The other took place in 1948 between a Hawaii all-star baseball team and the Harlem Globetrotters. They played 80 games across the mainland. Let’s take a look.
Gov. Waihee vs. Mayor Fasi
Pete Sybinsky recalled a softball game between the governor’s staff and the mayor’s Cabinet in 1987.
“After the election of Gov. John Waihee, the bitter rivalry between the state and the city that had existed previously was moderated by the governor’s easygoing personality and willingness to work with the city, led by Frank Fasi.
“The two got along pretty well, so well in fact, that the state challenged the city to a softball game. Hizzoner took the challenge in June of 1987.
“I was a member of the Gov’s Gang,” Sybinsky said. “Our uniforms were red, white and blue, in contrast to the city team wearing the familiar Fasi colors of black and gold.”
New Big Innings vs. Fireballers
Waihee’s election slogan had been “New Beginnings,” so he called his team the “New Big Innings.” He selected a nickname for himself: “Jumping Jack Flash” Waihee.
Fasi called his team the “Fireballers” and took the personal nickname “Strikeout,” because “I’m always striking out the hitters,” he told Honolulu Advertiser reporter Mark Matsunaga.
“When I was in high school, baseball was my game,” Waihee, 40, said, beaming with confidence. Fasi, 66, predicted that experience would triumph over youthful athleticism.
Rainbow Stadium
The game was played at Rainbow Stadium. To accommodate the government officials who were not as fit as they had been two decades earlier, the bases were installed at 75-foot increments, although the 90-foot bases stayed in their usual place.
Both leaders were the pitchers for their respective teams. In the first inning, with a runner on first, Waihee came up to the plate. Fasi threw a good pitch. “Strike one,” the umpire bellowed.
Fasi wound up and threw a second strike. With an 0-2 count, Fasi eased up. Waihee swung and cranked it over the head of Fireballer left fielder Deputy Police Chief Warren Ferreira.
“I had to give John a nice pitch,” said Fasi. “It wouldn’t have been right to strike him out.”
Wrong base
Waihee rounded second and made his way to third. Unfortunately, he wound up on the real third base, instead of the one placed closer to home plate for the softball game. He was tagged out before he could correct his mistake.
“I never heard of anybody running to the wrong base before,” Waihee said later.
Fasi led off the bottom of the first with a ground-out to third base, but his team managed two runs on a double by Deputy Public Works Director Sam Callejo to tie the game 2-2. The state scored three more runs in the second inning.
Waihee took the mound in the second inning. He gave up a home run to Ernest Chang of the Auditoriums Department and then walked Fasi on five pitches.
Bloody nose
The next batter popped up between the pitcher’s mound and second base.
Waihee went for it, but so did shortstop Dan Kouchi, deputy director of transportation. Waihee’s nose collided with Kouchi’s shoulder.
“The governor left the field, dabbing at the blood oozing from his nose with a handkerchief,” the Advertiser reported. “In the dugout, state Health Director Dr. Jack Lewin checked Waihee, snapping his nose back into place.”
Lewin suggested Waihee go to the hospital for X-rays. Lewin and Chuck Freedman, Waihee’s communications chief, said the governor was reluctant to leave the stadium. He was due to bat in the third inning. But Lewin insisted.
“I’m supposed to be on TV tomorrow,” Waihee cracked. “What a dumb thing to have happen.”
Waihee was taken to The Queen’s Medical Center, where X-rays revealed a hairline fracture. He was treated and released.
Meanwhile, back on the field, the state (sans Waihee) scored four runs in each of the third and fourth innings, breaking the game wide open.
Fasi’s Fireballers rallied for three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on a home run by Gilbert Doles of the Corporation Counsel’s Office.
In the ninth inning, Deputy Corporation Counsel Duke Aiona smacked a long drive to straightaway center field. Freedman made a running catch, ending the game.
Waihee’s New Big Innings beat Fasi’s Fireballers 13-9. Reporter Matsunaga concluded, “The contest wasn’t pretty, but thankfully, it was brief.”
Mainland tour
Alvin Muramoto wrote to tell me of an even earlier Hawaii all-star team. “My uncle, whose name was Jun Muramoto, played for that team.”
The story begins with Jackie Robinson, who left UCLA in 1941. The only job he was offered was playing semi-pro football in Honolulu. He lived and played here in the months leading up to World War II.
Six years later he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team was inspired by Robinson breaking the Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947.
They formed a baseball team and planned to tour the country. Of course, they needed a team to play against. The guys they selected were Muramoto’s uncle and other players from Hawaii; the team was called the Hawaiian All-Stars.
Rod Ohira wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1999: “The tour was put together by Hawaii promoter Mackay Yanagisawa and Abe Saperstein, manager and owner of the Globetrotters.
“Hawaii’s all-star roster included Dick and Harry Kitamura, Crispin Mancao, Jyun Hirota, Ernest Cabral, Bill Yasui, Jimmy Wasa, Lefty Higuchi, Clarence Neves, George Rodrigues, Collie Souza, Kats Kojima, Masa Morita and Jun Muramoto.
“They left Hawaii in June, 1948, for an 80-game barnstorming tour of the mainland United States with the Harlem Globetrotters. The Hawaii team won 44 of the 80 games and returned home in August.”
The Herald Press in Saint Joseph, Mich., wrote: “The All-Stars are a mixture of many races, including Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Puerto Ricans, Russians and Filipinos.
“They are small, as far as we’re accustomed to seeing baseball players, averaging only 150 pounds per man. They lack distance hitting ability but they field and run the bases sensationally.”
On July 27 the Hawaiian All-Stars trailed the Harlem Globetrotters 8-7 in the ninth inning in front of 1,800 fans in Ogden, Utah. Muramoto came to the plate with one out and two runners on base. He hit a double, driving in two runs and winning the game, 9-8.
Dream come true
“It was a dream come true,” 78-year-old Muramoto recalled to Ohira. “We played a lot of baseball in small cities as well as major league parks.”
“The Globetrotters had a good team,” Ohira wrote. “Some of their players could have been playing in the major leagues.”
“Playing at Yankee Stadium and touching the lockers of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig was my biggest thrill,” said Muramoto, who played against major leaguers in Hawaii during the war.
Alvin Muramoto said his uncle also played for the Asahi baseball organization and the senior AJA Moiliili team.
“I was 7 years old, sitting in right field at the old Honolulu Stadium, when my uncle hit a home run towards me. It was the greatest adventure for a young kid to see that happen.”
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
