Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Keeping Score
SWEET memories. That's the only way one can describe the labor of love entitled "Hans L'Orange Field: Common Ground, Uncommon Glory, 1924-1999.'' Waipahu has its own
‘Field of Dreams’The 48-page book about Waipahu's "Field of Dreams'' commemorates the baseball park's 75th anniversary. But it's more than a baseball book.
It's a page out of Hawaii's rich plantation history, interwoven with pictures and oral histories.
Like a favorite palaka shirt, it's comfortable and wears well.
There's nothing fancy about Mitsuru "Brown'' Watabu's story that is used as the book's introduction.
But he speaks for many when he talks about an "inanimate thing ... that was filled with faces, names and families - each with a story to tell, to remember ... and to cherish."
Watabu lived, he says, literally two stones' throw north of the park. Gute Santiago lived an underhand toss across the road from it, Walter Gouveia a a volleyball spike away.
Build it and they will come ... for more than just baseball. There were barefoot football leagues, boxing, track and field meets, and volleyball matches.
One of the best stories comes from Peter L'Orange, son of the man for whom the park is named. He reminisces about all-around athlete Walter Gouveia, the one-man volleyball team.
"He'd take on any team,'' according to Peter L'Orange. "He had the type of hard jump serve that you see now days. Back in the 1930s, nobody else served that way.''
It must have been something to watch Gouveia in his prime. He ran the 1936 Boston Marathon barefoot, finishing 10th overall, and was recruited by Jesse Owens to train on the mainland ... but turned down the opportunity.
Zen Abe has long been the volunteer caretaker of Hans L'Orange. He continues the legacy began when plantation employees spent their one day off a week to clear the seven acres set aside by the Amfac Board for the park.
HANS L'Orange rose from field hand at the Oahu Sugar company in Waipahu to plantation manager. He understood, according to Abe, that part of his responsibilities included offering recreational and athletic opportunities to his workers.
"He fought for the park and he won,'' said Abe. "He said that just work, work, work is no good. And recreation is one way of playing together, getting together -- a nice way of making family.''
The smokestacks of the sugar mill are gone. But the park remains, continuing to connect the past to the present.
I remember the first time I saw the park. I had typed in the name often when taking results over the phone from the various park leagues.
It continued to be this mythical place until one day I took the wrong off-ramp off H-1 and ended up driving past the parking lot. It appeared pretty ordinary, heavily dusted with red dirt.
But, years later, after watching a Hawaii Winter Baseball game featuring the West Oahu Canefire, I understood that the field was the red-dirt heart of an island way of life.
On Saturday, the book will be on sale as part of the Hans L'Orange Baseball Park Council's second annual Plantation Hekka Cook-Off. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hawaii's Plantation Village in Waipahu.
Joe Hamada, the Council's chairman, said the day will feature the plantation lifestyle that was once Waipahu -- a lifestyle that was literally played out of Hans L'Orange.''
If you have the time, take the wrong off-ramp off H-1 Saturday or some other day. And take a slow drive past history.
Cindy Luis is Star-Bulletin sports editor.
Her column appears periodically.
Email Cindy: cluis@starbulletin.com