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Sports Watch
WATCHING Les Murakami's Rainbows struggling to play .500 ball this season, I couldn't help but think how better University of Hawaii baseball teams were back in the late 1950s when they played the military and senior league teams. Rainbows’ lineup
in ’56 among bestMaybe I'm biased because the players were my classmates and I wrote about them for the student newspaper.
True, the Rainbows have never had a better pitcher than Derek Tatsuno, who burst upon the scene two decades later.
Plus, pitchers Scott Karl, Mike Campbell and Bryan Duquette and hitters Greg Oniate, Collin Tanabe, Mario Monico and Glenn Braggs come more quickly to mind to latter-day Rainbow followers.
They've earned All-American recognition, all-league awards and even have their names listed in the UH baseball media guide.
And while the media guide lists all of the UH baseball scores through the years since 1923, the list of letter winners don't predate 1972. Not that the university didn't award letters before 1972.
SO let me introduce some of the players, in particular, those on the 1956 Rainbow team coached by Toku Tanaka, who at 78 can shoot his age in golf, which he plays twice a week with his 442nd Veterans group at the Honolulu Country Club.
The players, now all in the mid-60s, became coaches and athletic directors, community leaders and educators. Many have retired.
One recognizable name is Allan Yamamoto, perhaps more noted for his golf than as a first baseman and pitcher.
The rest of the infield had Les Matsubara at second base, Dick Miyasato at third and Ken Nakakura at shortstop. Until this day, I have yet to see a better glove at short playing for the Rainbows.
Fausto Grado, who's now on the UH faculty, Carlton Loo and Hank Kibota were the outfielders.
The catcher was George Anzai. I must be the only guy to still call him Shigeru.
Tanaka had three lefthanders on his pitching staff -- Mel Hirano, John Nakamura and Dick Matsuwaka, whose fastball had three speeds -- slow, slower, slowest.
Matsuwaka, a childhood pal, was Tanaka's choice to pitch the 1956 season's most intriguing game -- against the NCAA champion Ohio State Buckeyes.
They were on the way back from Tokyo and wanted to play a game here. So a game was hastily scheduled with UH at the old Honolulu Stadium.
TWO of the Ohio State stars were Frank Howard, who went on to hit 382 major league home runs, and Galen Cisco, who later pitched for the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets.
"They thought they were going to pound us," Tanaka said.
Instead, Matsuwaka pitched the entire game, handcuffing the 6-foot-7 Howard with his assortment of junkballs.
The media guide shows the Buckeyes winning, 4-3. But what it doesn't tell is how the Rainbows lost, which is a story in itself.
The 'Bows had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth.
"Toku called the team together in a huddle and told us, 'You guys want to try and win it right now or play for the tie and stay here all night?' " Yamamoto recalled.
"He told us if the game ended right now, we would still have time to go out and have a few beers."
"We didn't want to bunt to beat the NCAA champs," Tanaka said.
The Rainbows went down swinging as Cisco struck out the side. But the beer afterward sure tasted good.
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.