By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Hank Bauer of San Diego is all girled up for the game.
Several Padre fans turned up in skirts, although the others
opted for body paint rather than coconuts.
Baseball, sooner or later, turns to numbers.
By Burl Burlingame
Let's look at attendance figures Saturday for America's
favorite pastime: Hmmmm, Atlanta played Colorado,
and 48,065 fans showed up. Other match-ups
produced crowds of 46,244; 44,206; 40,237; and 42,142.
Star-Bulletinut with 37,382 and in sixth place, attendance-wise and nation-wide, was the double-header between the San Diego Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals at Aloha Stadium. Neither is exactly a home team in Hawaii, but technically that honor belonged to San Diego, since it was their play date.
A technicality. What mattered was ball, real ball, major-league-magic fast-pitch hardball played by guys who are so good they could make a living at it. Three games were played; one in the soft gloaming of late afternoon, one in the warm night, another in the high-wattage glare of a baking day.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Allyn Flaherty, wife of Padre player John Flaherty, takes
a picture of other players' wives with the San Diego mascot,
decked out for this series in aloha wear.
The fans made this pilgrimage to Aloha Stadium, catching the authorities under-prepared and overwhelmed. Vendors ran out of hot dogs -- gasp! -- and beer -- groan! -- there was no ice cream to be had anywhere -- oh! -- and simple necessities like paper towels in the bathrooms vanished during the first few innings.The city did have quite a few policemen on hand, and they did an impressive job of watching the game while ignoring the basics of traffic control. You'd think that when 37,382 citizens converge on one spot at one time, there would be an attempt to direct traffic safely and efficiently. You'd be wrong.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Cardinals coach George Hendrick autographs balls
for fans at yesterday's game.
Curiously, the strict monitoring of tailgaters that takes place during football games was absent as well, so that two people with a hibachi could completely occupy a parking space while the lot was technically "full," and motorists sent elsewhere.The police did celebrate this week's anniversary of Jackie Robinson's major-league debut by cracking down on the colored people in the bleachers. It is apparently a crime to paint yourself green or red, stand up and whoop during a baseball game. And judging from the swift police response when some knucklehead ran onto the field to get Ricky Henderson's autograph, it's apparent that capital punishment will soon be reinstated.
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Up in the nosebleed section, a fan sticks his
sneakers out to catch the sun.
But most people had the time of their lives, because it was ball, real ball, and the user-unfriendliness of Aloha Stadium evaporates when you see a player the calibre of Willie McGee set the table. McGee, a vet who always looks like he's just tasted li hing mui for the first time, hit triples and shagged hairy flies the way the rest of us try to draw breath in the morning; simple, pure, clean, effortless. It's not Little League. Ball, real ball; it's breathtaking to witness.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
The meek ducked, but for the bold there was glory.
The guy with the glove caught a foul ball along the third-base line.
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Justin McBennet is escorted out by a cordon of police
and Marine officers -- because he stood up too much,
according to his friends.
