THREE years ago today, the University of Hawaii played Southern Cal in baseball and Rainbow Stadium was sold out. Fans got their money's worth as the Rainbows topped USC, 3-2, in 12 innings. UH baseball fun again,
but who would know?The place was sold out again the next night.
Outside of an exhibition game against Meiji -- a college team from Japan -- at the tail end of the Easter Tournament that year, the place hasn't been sold out since.
This is not the way it's supposed to go down as coach Les Murakami chases the 1,000th victory of his career.
I guess it's understandable, though. The team hasn't had a winning season in conference play since 1992. Season ticket sales have dipped accordingly.
University records show that 3,141 season tickets were sold for the 1993 season. The number dropped to 3,065 in '94, to 2,766 in '95, to 2,350 in '96, to 1,833 in '97 and to 1,441 this year.
Actual attendance has averaged around 1,200 through the first 19 games this season, 16 of which have been UH victories.
Even the Rainbow Lady -- Ann Schwab -- and her husband "Bud" have stopped coming for the most part.
It's just not the same and it's kind of sad.
Part of the falloff can be traced to the success of the university's other athletic programs. The women's and men's basketball teams and the men's volleyball team are all top-notch caliber and play exciting ball. Fans are spending their money on those teams right now. After all, everyone loves a winner.
"They're making some choices out there," athletic director Hugh Yoshida said. "You have the die-hard baseball fans, 1,200 every weekend, but people are making choices as far as entertainment is concerned."
The missing fans are missing out. I don't always agree with the way Murakami calls his game, but this team can flat-out play.
Dusty Bergman and Patrick McNair have shown they are quickly learning how to pitch with confidence.
Outfielder Neal Honma is a force at the plate and center fielder Darren Blakely runs down everything in the outfield.
Throughout the lineup guys seem to be hungry to come up with runners in scoring position.
Rainbow baseball is fun again.
The team plays its first road series this weekend, opening the Western Athletic Conference season with a three-game set against San Jose State. It would be greedy to ask for a sweep, but seeing as Murakami needs just four wins to reach 1,000, here's hoping the 'Bows do just that.
After all, San Diego State comes to town the following weekend and I have to believe Murakami would dearly love to get No. 1,000 against Jim Dietz.
A study released yesterday by the Center for the Study of Sport in Society found the hiring records for women and minorities in college athletics are very poor.
The study found that at the Division I level, 81.5 percent of head basketball coaches are Caucasian as are 92.8 percent of football coaches and 97.6 percent of baseball coaches.
Contrast that with the University of Hawaii. Three of the seven head coaches for the major sports (football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's volleyball, baseball and softball) are of Asian heritage.
On top of that, the top assistants in men's and women's basketball are African-American, as is the football team's new defensive coordinator.
The athletic director is of Asian descent and associate athletic director Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano is Hawaiian/Chinese/Portuguese.
As Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano correctly points out, there is still room for improvement and it is easier to hire diverse staffs in a state with such a diverse population.
But it's a hiring record that UH can be proud of and one that most other universities can't match.
