Hawaii
Ballplayers
all shook upSHAKEN and perhaps even a bit stirred. No, we're not talking about the mood in the soon-to-be-silenced Star-Bulletin newsroom. We're talking Taiwan! The earthquake which hit there was considerably stronger than the one I experienced 10 years ago in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, and on that basis alone I'm overjoyed I wasn't in Taiwan. Two people who were there, however, were mentioned in previous columns. Localites Jim Hickey and Matt Apana, you may recall, were elevated from the depths of baseball's minor leagues in the Dakotas and signed to play in Taiwan. That's where they ended up and that is where they were when the earthquake hit. It's a fascinating story ...
BOTH Hickey and Apana were in Taichung, where all the action was, seated on a couch in their 17-story condo building and watching "The Exorcist" on TV. No joke! When the couch started shaking as if Linda Blair was on it, Hickey told Apana to cut it out! It took only seconds for them to realize it was no joke, and the two started running around looking for shelter. Fortunately, they were on the third floor, so they bolted into the street, Mike still wearing his Calvin Klein boxer shorts and no shoes. They ended up spending the night at the Taichung Tiger's stadium. Hours later, pal Bryan Uy of Havana Cabana tracked down his uncle's family in Taiwan and learned they were safe, and then got through to Mike. Jim Hickey advised his brother by phone, "Camp out at second base." Addenda: Hickey is hitting .400 and his Tigers won their last game 1-0 when he hit a home run in the ninth inning, but his next run home may be to Hawaii ...
Stacy and Stacey
YOU won't see it until Saturday at 5 p.m., when "Baywatch Hawaii" premieres its first show of the season on KHON-TV, but localite Stacy Kamano's very first scene is an eye-opener. The person whose eyes are opened the widest is actor Michael Bergin. He walks in and encounters Stacy, who's just about to pull her bathing suit up from the waist. The TV viewer sees all this from behind her, but from Bergin's reaction, you get the feeling he and Stacy's character, Kekoa Tanaka, will cross paths again ... That brings us to Stacey Schiller, 24-year-old daughter of local adman Marty Schiller. She's just accepted a position with the American Red Cross and is getting her feet wet, literally, by being sent to the Carolinas to aid with flood victims. Dad is worried, as dads are, but proud nonetheless. He served for 12 years on the local Red Cross board of directors and for three years was its chairman ...THE Price of Paradise, continued: AT&T is sending out alerts to watch new TV spots starring Paul Reiser that introduce a new plan where you pay just 7 cents per minute all day, every day, to calls from your home to the mainland. Then comes, almost parenthetically, the kicker I simply don't understand. "Your calls to the Hawaii neighbor islands are only 9-cents per minute all the time." In other words, it's cheaper to call Maine than Molokai ...
Yes, you can
THE theme of Saturday's all day Keiki Asthma Fair at Waianae District Park is "You can do it with Asthma." If you don't believe it, check out special guest Tommy Kono. As a keiki he developed asthma, and went on to win Olympic Gold Medals and World Championship titles in weightlifting, not a sport for the weak of body or spirit. You can meet Tommy and enjoy plenty of fun and games while learning more about asthma at Saturday's fair ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com