CONGRATULATIONS to Les Murakami on his milestone 1,000th coaching victory Sunday against Fresno State. For Murakami, milestone
only a steppingstoneAs Murakami has often said, it's not a milestone that he has thought about over his 28 seasons as baseball coach at the University of Hawaii.
"When you coach long enough, you're going to get there," he said. "Except for the media and boosters bringing this stuff up, I wouldn't have thought of it."
Perhaps it's just as well that Murakami didn't dwell on it. After all, wasn't it just last season that critics were trying to put a millstone around his neck?
The difference between milestone and millstone is the letter "L" -- as in loss. And Murakami's Rainbows certainly had a lot more L's than W's last season.
That led to a lot of grumbling. Some said Murakami had "lost" it and that maybe he shouldn't be coaching the Rainbows.
How soon they forget.
Forgetting all he has done to build the program, literally from scratch. Forgetting all he has done to make it one of the more successful programs in the country.
In other places, they'd name fields or stadiums after such a coach. Give them jobs until they're the ones who say "enough." Not the other way around. Here, it's "what have you done for me lately?"
Sure, maybe attendance at Rainbow Stadium -- Murakami Stadium, one of these years -- has dipped. Losing doesn't help. But it's not the only explanation.
THE sports dollar of UH fans has been spread thin in recent years with the growing interest in volleyball and basketball -- men's and women's. Baseball apparently has taken the biggest hit.
Obviously, winning is the greatest cure. And while attendance at Rainbow baseball games is still lagging, a few more victories such as the two over Fresno State last week should help.
"The more important thing was a win in the WAC, not the 1,000th win" Murakami said.
The post-game ceremony was nice, with UH president Kenneth Mortimer and athletic director Hugh Yoshida on hand along with 1,558 fans. For many observers, it was fitting that Murakami's "grand" victory came at home.
Not to Murakami.
"I would rather have won my 1,000th game at Rice," he said. "We had them down two times in the last inning and couldn't win. It wasn't mean to be then, I guess."
Again, he was thinking in terms of WAC victories and not individual accomplishment. Still, milestone victories don't come around often. So it's worthy of a loud cheer.
Murakami, though, hopes the cheering returns to Rainbow Stadium.
HIS Rainbows are 20-11 overall, with some catching up to do in the WAC race. But first, a break for the 23rd Rainbow Easter Tournament this week at Rainbow Stadium.
"I always felt we had a pretty good team this year. It's kind of a loose team. They like to go out there and have some fun," Murakami said. "We'll go as far as our pitching goes."
Murakami realizes that Hawaii fans are notorious for wanting to be front-runners.
"I know you can't help that," he said. "But they really don't understand. They don't know why certain things happen. Like you can't win with guys injured."
He has three scholarship pitchers sidelined with arm trouble. A fourth just returned after a two-week suspension for taking out his frustrations on a water fountain instead of blaming the real culprit -- an ineffective left arm.