Oakland A’s vs.
Yokohama Bay Stars
at Aloha Stadium?

A Memphis promoter has
all sides talking but has yet to
forge an agreement

By Keith Kosaki
Star-Bulletin

Baseball may be back -- with an international, major-league twist.

Major League Co-Ordinators of Memphis, Tenn., is trying to arrange a two-game exhibition series between the Oakland Athletics and the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japanese League at Aloha Stadium next March.

But while the A's and Bay Stars are interested, the director of Major League Co-Ordinators has a record that leaves Aloha Stadium officials skeptical.

Stadium Deputy Manager Mike Hirohata said promoter Carl C. Taylor has been proposing baseball exhibitions to them since 1995 but has never followed through.

Taylor has never secured a date for any of his proposals, Hirohata said. While Hirohata wants to see the A's-Bay Stars series happen, he is doubtful.

Mickey Morabito, Oakland's director of team travel, said he is intrigued by Taylor's proposal, although Taylor isn't a well-known baseball promoter.

Morabito added it's not unusual for outside promoters to try to stage games in nonmajor-league cities. He said he's been approached about playing exhibitions in Portland and Washington, D.C., and the A's have played in Las Vegas and New Orleans.

"We would be interested if everything was right as far as the dates and the economics," Morabito said.

State sports coordinator Russ Francis said the exhibition could lead to future exhibition tournaments between major league and Japanese teams.

"If the A's are successful, the idea is to bring other teams for round-robin series, including games on the neighbor islands," Francis said.

Taylor, 58, said he plans to secure the date, as well as make hotel and travel arrangements, when he comes to Hawaii in late May and is looking at March 20 and 21 in 1999 as the possible dates.

Taylor couldn't follow through with his previous ideas for games here, he said, because he could never get two teams interested and Hawaii was too far away for most teams he talked with.

Taylor has never arranged major league games, but he said he did bring Mexican major league games to Arizona in 1981 and Texas in 1990. Hawaii is a good exhibition site because it had a Triple-A team, the defunct Hawaii Islanders, he said. He also was "thrilled" with the turnout for the Padres-Cardinals series last April.

Nearly 80,000 people attended that three-game series at Aloha Stadium. It was the first major-league regular season series in Hawaii. The last major league-Japanese League exhibition series played here was in 1975, between the Padres and the Seibu Lions.

The A's Morabito said this would be the first time in team history they would play a Japanese team.

"That's what's intriguing about this," Morabito said. "This (proposal) sticks out because of the location and the opponent."

Tadahiro Ushigome, the Bay Stars executive director for international operations, said money would be an important factor in determining his team's participation in a Hawaii exhibition series, but getting visas would be the top priority.

"This is a good experience to play against a major league team," Ushigome said. "If everything is in the clear, there's no problem."

Ushigome said the Bay Stars played in Hawaii in the 1960s, against the Islanders. They also had preseason training camp at Arizona in 1980 and '81.

Taylor plans to meet in Oakland with Bay Stars Athletics officials in June, after securing the stadium and travel arrangements, to discuss a financial agreement. He said he's still trying to get sponsors for the event.

The state will start building a baseball training complex in Kapolei in August, which it plans to market to Japanese teams for training and exhibitions. The city is also looking into developing a similar facility, the Waiola Sports Complex in central Oahu.

Wally Yonamine, the state's coordinator for baseball promotion, is currently in Japan. Mayor Jeremy Harris and city sports-development coordinator Sid Fernandez met with the Bay Stars' Ushigome during a recent Japan trip.

Taylor said he played for the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro Leagues from 1955-61, and scouted for the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres. He was also general manager of the independent Texas Lone Star League in 1978.