MARCH is supposed to be a happy time for all who follow baseball. Spring training is the ultimate sports metaphor for optimism and rebirth. Unlike college basketball, nobody's baseball bubble bursts until April at the earliest. Spring brings empty
feeling to baseball fanBut if you are a fan living in Hawaii, that's not necessarily the case.
Yes, the University of Hawaii team has gotten off to a surprisingly strong start and coach Les Murakami is closing in on 1,000 career victories. This year's Rainbows play a scrappy brand of offensive ball reminiscent of the glory years, and they've come a long way from last season in the pitching department.
Still, all you have to do is look at the error column to realize there's a huge difference between college baseball -- even good college baseball -- and major league baseball.
There's a hunger for big-league ball here -- 77,000 tickets distributed for a three-game series at Aloha Stadium between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Padres last spring proved that.
But early reports that there would be more to come soon, even as early as last season, turned out to be a major-league tease.
For whatever reasons (could it be poor seasons for both teams?), neither the Padres nor Cardinals are returning this year. San Diego's about-face, after declaring the series a success, is the bigger surprise since the Padres weren't shy about trying to project themselves as "Hawaii's Team." (That in itself was a bit of a joke considering the disparate loyalties of big league fans here. Uh, try telling a third-generation Dodger fan or a transplanted Bostonian to adopt the expansion Pads.)
STILL, Hawaii fans got to see the best hitter for average of the past 30 years, Tony Gwynn, and the best base stealer of all time, Rickey Henderson. Also, arguably the best manager and best relief pitcher of their generation, Tony LaRussa and Dennis Eckersley, plied their trades for the Cards here.
But there was a promise of more. Russ Francis, the state's sports coordinator from the Department of Business and Economic Development, said he fielded several calls from various teams showing interest in coming here to play in the early part of this season. With so many games rained and snowed out last April, Hawaii seemed a natural fit for some season openers.
Apparently, it ain't gonna happen.
Sources say the earliest we might get another taste of big league ball is next spring, and negotiations are in a very preliminary stage. The good news is the team is the San Francisco Giants, who have a huge following here. The bad news is that the talks, at this point, are about the Show's opening act, exhibition games.
ADDING to this fan's melancholy is the retirement of Sid Fernandez. Although Sid was definitely on a downward slide most of the past few years due to injuries, it was always fun for us in Hawaii to follow him. More than any other local player, he was one of us, and he was good. He won a World Series and pitched in all-star games and had his best years with the high-profile Mets.
And he was an unmistakable local boy.
Same with Lenn Sakata, but except for the one year when his grit helped the Orioles to the World Series (remember when he filled in at catcher and had a big homer in an extra-inning victory during the pennant race?), his career was obscure.
But Sid made it big in the Big Apple, and there were lots of guys sitting on their sofas here watching him, telling their wives, "I owned him in high school. Went 3-for-4." So what if it wasn't true.
It's sad to see Fernandez embroiled in controversy now as a political appointee to a job for which he isn't qualified.
And at 35, he could be in somebody's spring training camp.
Dave Reardon is a magazine editor and freelance
writer who has covered Hawaii sports since 1977.
He can be reached via the Star-Bulletin or
by email at dreardon@hmsa.com.
