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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
A few random thoughts
on a thinking man’s gameAND another season of Rainbow baseball is under way ...
>> No, the Rainbows did not look like a budding dynasty last night, but Texas was in the house and it was a nice little game, and baseball in January is something we should never take for granted.
>> Let's put it this way: Texas is better in baseball than it is in football (and Texas football, through the years, hasn't been bad).
>> Against Texas, you have to take care of the little things. And the big ones. And the medium things. And everything.
>> And then, the rains came.
>> Guess who left the umbrella in the car. Guess who parked on the street, a good walk away.
>> (Guess who doesn't have a UH parking pass this year.)
>> Luckily, the weather settled down. I don't know how it looked on television, but at times I was seeing the opening montage to "Gilligan's Island."
>> Nothing smells like Opening Day at the ballpark.
Oh ... well, the second day's hot dogs smelled pretty good, too.
>> "Ho, that's a big climb," up to the press box, I said to Al Chase.
Al agreed that it requires strenuous training. "I've been going up and down the stairs in my house for the last three weeks," he said.
"Al, you look like you could run the hundred!" Jim Leahey said. (The best part is I don't think Jim even heard our conversation. I think it was just a general comment.)
>> Rainbow fans are on their way back. Midway through the first there was still a line outside the stadium that stretched to third base. There were actually people in my row (on both sides!). People were actually looking at the numbers on their tickets instead of taking their pick of the wide-open spaces.
>> Baseball on KFVE is great, but baseball in Murakami Stadium is something special. And some still remember. There are a precious few that can still almost taste the good old days.
>> The day is coming when I will be banished to the press box, when there won't be enough room for a goofy sportswriter to type in the stands. Even in the red section, in the very last row.
>> Any sport that puts the "Austin Powers" theme song in its PA rotation is OK with me.
>> That Les Murakami's favorite team is wearing black but not orange is a crime against humanity.
>> Josh Green, coming through with a two-out RBI single in the second inning. Big. Then, in the fourth, with two on and two out, he put one so far in the hole Texas' Nick Peoples Steve Saxed home another UH run. Then a single up the middle to lead off the sixth. Josh Green! Maybe the former first-team junior college All-American has bloomed.
>> So Hawaii warmed up, looked good, chasing Texas starter Sam LeCure in the midst of a nice two-run rally in the fifth. Then -- excitement! -- Nate Thurber's first hit as a Rainbow made it a one-run game.
This was going to be fun after all.
>> But in the end Texas was still Texas. Now we see what separates the great powers from the rest. The Longhorns' rally mannerisms are in College World Series form.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com