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Monday
Evening QB
TO be sure, except for all those professional golf followers in Fiji and the Penguins backers in Antarctica, Hawaii sports fans are forced to celebrate the exploits of their sports heroes from afar more than any community. Good times for
Viloria, Benny, ACConsider it part of the price paid for living in paradise.
Honolulu is one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas without at least one major league professional team in baseball, football, basketball or hockey.
We all know the reason for that -- geography. Travel costs, in time and money, just won't let it happen. That's just the way it is until we finally have the technology to e-mail bats, gloves, football helmets, balls, players and coaches.
Talk about your attachments.
Since Hawaii doesn't have professional teams of its own, hometowners who make it to the big leagues (including those who only competed in college here) are extremely important to the state's sports psyche -- especially when the University of Hawaii teams are going through a rough time.
So the pain of the Rainbows being fried by Rice in baseball and fed to the lions by USC's Trojans in volleyball over the weekend was eased by one of the best weekends ever by Hawaii's expatriate jocks.
This had to be a first: On Saturday, highlights of one former Hawaii athlete (ex-Rainbow Anthony Carter) were being shown on SportsCenter, while the exploits of another (Benny Agbayani from Hawaii Pacific) were documented on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.
And it wasn't even Larry Beil (a UH graduate) hosting the show.
Former Rainbow pitcher Mark Johnson even got a little air time for his part in Tigers vs. White Sox, the rematch. Rumor is Don King got part of the gate for that one.
Speaking of boxing, Waipahu's Brian Viloria finally sealed his deal to represent the United States in the upcoming Summer Olympics.
The expectations for Viloria to singlehandedly revive pro boxing in Hawaii are just a bit premature.
Let's watch him punch out the rest of the world in Sydney first. Viloria has a chance to become one of Hawaii's biggest Olympic heroes since Duke Kahanamoku.
AS for Carter and Agbayani, they are relative bit players in big productions. But because of the stages they are on, they are always one last-second shot or one swing of the bat away from the national spotlight.
The Miami Heat point guard and New York Mets outfielder are both underdogs who have come out of nowhere and refuse to go away, always coming up with the plays to save their career for one more day, for one more game.
Carter had the starting job foisted on him because of another injury to Tim Hardaway. Those who rip Carter for his lack of a consistent jump shot should remember that Hardaway came out of UTEP in 1989 a similar player to Carter.
Hardaway shot .274 from 3-point land as a rookie at Golden State, but became one of the NBA's top long-range threats. It's possible Carter could, too.
It's been nearly a month since Agbayani hit the shot heard 'round the world, his game-winning grand slam in Japan against the Chicago Cubs.
He's hitting .400 on the season right now -- albeit in only 20 at bats.
Still, not bad for a guy who would be in Triple-A right now if not for an injury to Darryl Hamilton.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail dreardon@starbulletin.com