Sidelines
Getting used to
the new RainbowsWHO are these guys?
(No, really. I'm serious. Who are these guys?)
This season-opening series should come with name tags. Joshua Green? Brian Finegan? Nick Ponomarenko?
They've called these baseball Rainbows an "expansion team," which usually is not a term ringing with optimism. "Expansion team" does not sell a lot of season tickets. "Expansion team" does not get the blood pumping. Still, we've found out the hard way, it sounds a lot better than "transition year."
Wait. At least there's Brian Bock. I know that guy. And Tim Montgomery.
Rocky Russo? I scramble for my media guide. His favorite movie is "Big Trouble in Little China." I like him already. Now there's a man with taste.
The fans like him, too. They've quickly found a favorite. There's nothing like yelling out, "The Rock!"
They're catching on fast. By the bottom of the fifth, a small boy is asking excitedly, "Is that Josh Green out there?"
It was, at the bat. And Green, the star of this recruiting class (and so, by definition, the team), sent a gapper into right-center for an RBI double to tie it all up against UCLA.
The media guide says he was a first-team Junior College All-American, and maybe all this newness isn't so bad after all.
In case you missed it, that's the mantra of 2003. New team, molded in the man's image. New recruits, bigger, badder. New dugout, along the first-base line, and out of the sun.
New green fence (looks good).
New (and Mike Trapasso may have stressed this one most of all) hitting coach.
Same crowd.
That's not a complaint. Yet. There's nothing like a night or afternoon out at Les Murakami's Rainbow Stadium, all the old familiar faces, a relaxed atmosphere, plenty of elbow room. Spread out, eat saimin, watch baseball, the smell of garlic in the air. Leave the bustle for another day.
And yet, this crowd was encouraging, much the same way this new team was. Yes, there were still entire rows left empty. But on the first Saturday night of the season, it seemed a little less wide open, a little more filled in. You could almost envision a day in which you might have to actually check the number on your ticket in order to know where to sit.
The bittersweet time may be coming when I'll have to chronicle the action from the press box, rather than typing in the stands.
Put out a good team, and they will fill it up again.
But in the ninth, UH was still an expansion squad, and it will be at least until it proves differently in the months to come. But these Rainbows hit, they run, they throw. After last season, and it hurts to say this, that is something new, too.
While looking up Rich Olsen's life story it struck me that I was wearing an orange shirt at a UH baseball game, a journalism no-no. But I'm in the clear. There is no orange in UH's uniforms, sadly, there hasn't been for a while now.
Just another reminder that with these baseball 'Bows, there is a lot to get used to, a little at a time.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com