City, state make pitch
to Japanese baseball

If Japanese clubs
do their spring training here,
tourists could follow

By Keith Kosaki
Star-Bulletin

Maui-born Wally Yonamine, a hard-charging centerfielder enshrined in Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame, will be there.

Sid Fernandez, a key pitcher on the 1986 New York Mets World Series championship team, will be there, too.

Japan.

The two former pro baseball stars are working for separate government agencies but for the same goal: luring Japanese ballclubs to Hawaii for spring training.

The city and state, each making separate pitches this month in Japan, have their own plans for sports complexes on Oahu, but Gov. Ben Cayetano and Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris insist that they are not competing with each other.

Senate President Norman Mizuguchi warns of sending Japan "mixed signals," however.

Nonetheless, Mizuguchi (D, Aiea) said he supports Cayetano's appointment yesterday of Yonamine as the governor's $1-a-year special assistant for sports promotion.

Yonamine is scheduled to leave for Japan on April 17. Two days later, he's to talk with his former team, the Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo, about the possibility of having the ballclub train in the state's Ballpark at Kapolei, scheduled to be completed in the year 2000.

Harris and Fernandez are planning to leave later this week for Japan to tout the city's planned Waiola Sports Complex. Fernandez leads the city's sports industry development efforts.

Their trips will determine if Japanese teams are interested in using the facility and if there's Japanese interest in formulating a joint partnership for the complex, said Harris spokeswoman Carol Costa.

"We believe two (sports complexes) can be supported. We'll find out," Costa said.

Cayetano said Harris -- who may challenge Cayetano for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this year -- might consider looking into using the state's facility, which is further ahead in planning.

Cayetano added that he selected Yonamine, who spent 38 years in Japanese baseball as a player, coach and manager, as the state's baseball ambassador because Yonamine "knows Japanese baseball better than anyone in Hawaii."

Tax revenue estimates for a Japanese team and its entourage spending spring training, which lasts about a month, on Oahu weren't immediately available. But about 500,000 tourists come to Hawaii annually for sports-related activities, spending about $1.5 billion, which generates $78 million in tax revenue, according to the Cayetano administration

Yonamine said Japan's economic slump may make it difficult to attract teams. The upside is that there are a number of Japanese managers with whom he played, he added.

If, for instance, the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan's most popular teams, were to train in Hawaii, they would be accompanied by a media contingent of about 150, Yonamine said.

And that doesn't include fans, he added.

The Giants current manager, Shigeo Nagashima, has a home in Kaneohe and is a member of the Mid-Pacific Country Club, Yonamine said.

He and Nagashima were teammates for three seasons when they played for the Giants.