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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Rainbow renaissance
now officialTHE catcher's mitt pops when Rice is in town. Bats whiff. Batters curse. Fans wince.
Coaches throw up their hands.
Usually.
But on Friday night the Rainbows came out of the dugout at the end of the game with arms held high and shaking their fists. The guy with the gray hair and the old-style orange and green hat stood and cheered and yelled and even jumped, just a little bit.
Les Murakami's ballyard was alive.
When the Rainbows got the third out of that ninth inning Friday night, some drunk guy grabbed me (and here is where I should point out this was not in the press box) and said, "What the @#$% just happened?"
Hawaii had just beaten the national champs.
For the second time.
"It's a good thing, ah?" he said, shaking my hand.
It certainly was.
And last night, there were more of you at Murakami's Rainbow Stadium than there had been in quite a while.
There's something going on here. Something good.
"Honestly," UH skipper Mike Trapasso said Friday, "it's one win in (28). We're not going to catch them. We're not going to win the league outright. They're going to win the league outright."
That's not what I mean.
This is a sleeping giant. And it might not yet be awake again. But this season (and last night's attendance) shows it's wiping the makapiapia from its eyes.
Hawaii can play with Rice. And win.
Murakami's ballyard is alive again.
Is it too early to get excited? No. It's time to get excited. People have been waiting to get excited, wanting to get excited.
The guys with the gray hair wearing the old orange and green have been waiting to feel this way again.
Yes, it's early, maybe a year or two early, but here it is:
The Rainbows are pitching.
They're hitting.
They're winning.
Is Hawaii in Rice's class? Oh, no. No, no, no. I don't mean that at all. The Owls have what Trapasso says "is going to end up going down as the best pitching staff in college baseball history." They have "one of the top two or three coaches in the history of college baseball" in Wayne Graham, Trapasso said. These guys are the real deal.
This is the cream rising to the top.
The Rainbows need breaks to beat Rice (almost everyone does). Five beanballs by a first-round pick Friday night?
"We're not going to look a gift horse in the mouth," Trapasso said.
Don't get me wrong -- UH is a long way from elite.
But this is a good team again. We see that now.
And there are people in the stands who still remember what used to be.
Go ahead -- get a little excited. There's something good going on here.
Hawaii can play with Rice. Hawaii can beat Rice.
And last night people poured into the stadium like they did in the old days.
What just happened?
This is a sleeping giant. And the alarm is going off.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com