Editorials
Saturday, May 19, 2001
It’s post-season
for ‘Mr. College
Baseball’
Les Murakami, will be honored tonight
as he closes a remarkable career as builder of
the University of Hawaii baseball program.SPECIAL: ALOHA COACH LES
FIRST BASE may have been wishful thinking for many followers of the University of Hawaii's baseball program when Les Murakami accepted the part-time coaching job 30 years ago. The team had no scholarships, a makeshift on-campus field, hardly any equipment and a strictly local schedule that included only four college-level games. As he sees his No. 11 being added to Rainbow Stadium's commemorative outfield wall, Murakami can rest assured that he hit a home run for baseball in Hawaii.
Although intending to hold the job only for a year or two, Murakami began building the program from the outset, setting his sights on NCAA Division I status and the scholarships, schedule and stadium that it entails. He attained all of those and, along the way, accumulated more than a thousand victories, six Western Athletic Conference championships, 11 appearances in NCAA post-season competition and a runner-up finish in the 1980 College World Series.Success was achieved with some speed. By 1977, Hawaii had qualified for NCAA regional play. Three years later, the Rainbows earned a No. 1 ranking nationally on their way to Omaha, where they nearly captured college baseball's top prize.
"I didn't realize how difficult it would be just to make it to the College World Series," Murakami remarked years later. "I always thought we would be back before now." The Bows have not achieved that goal, but have continued to be competitive at top levels.
Past members of Murakami's teams praise him for his fairness on the field and his recognition of education as the top priority. He told parents that their sons would leave Manoa with college degrees and did everything he could to fulfill that promise.
"The thing I took away most was that academics was a shared responsibility," Paul Ah Yet recalls of Murakami's influence during his recent years with the Bows. "When you left the program you wanted to be more than just a ballplayer."
Murakami, who will retire upon reaching age 65 next month, has been on medical leave since suffering a stroke in November. At mid-game ceremonies tonight, he will be driven into the stadium he is responsible for having built in 1984 to be honored for his achievements. At some point soon, the stadium should bear his name.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
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