Sakata to manage Waikiki in HWB

The North Shore team gets Lum as a bench coach as the league returns Oct. 1

Mike Lum and Lenn Sakata will be among the on-field leadership when Hawaii Winter Baseball begins its second go-round Oct. 1.

Lum, hitting coach of the Charleston Power, will be bench coach of the North Shore Honu, and Sakata, manager of the San Jose Giants, will manage the Waikiki Beach Boys, HWB Chairman and CEO Duane Kurisu said.

Lum, who graduated from Roosevelt High School, played 15 seasons with the Braves, Reds and Cubs. He went on to be a long-time hitting coach with the Chicago White Sox organization.

Sakata, a Kalani High School graduate, played 11 years with the Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles, Oakland A's and New York Yankees. Sakata, who also played and managed in Japan, managed the Honolulu Sharks during the HWB's first incarnation in the 1990s.

Kurisu also confirmed reports that top prospects Ian Desmond (shortstop, Washington Nationals), Corey Dunlap (third baseman, Los Angeles Dodgers), Blake Dewitt (first baseman, Dodgers) and Dexter Fowler (center fielder, Colorado Rockies) will play in the league.

All four are considered potential big-league stars. Dewitt and Desmond were first-round draft picks.

"Only 10 percent (of minor leaguers) make it to the majors," Kurisu said. "These are some of the guys who will make it."

Dunlap and Dewitt will play for the Honu, along with four other Dodgers prospects, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Some former University of Hawaii players are expected to participate. Kurisu and UH baseball coach Mike Trapasso said they don't know who they are yet.

The former incarnation of HWB included future stars like Ichiro Suzuki and Jason Giambi.

Yesterday, HWB, in conjunction with Sony and SKIDATA, introduced technology new to Hawaii that will allow season-ticket holders to enter games by merely waving a key chain containing an embedded computer chip in front of a sensor.

The technology was used at the soccer World Cup in Germany this year.

"Each key chain will have the logo of one of our four teams printed on them," HWB president Hervy Kurisu said.

The teams are the Beach Boys, the Honu, the West Oahu CaneFires and the Honolulu Sharks.

Season tickets are on sale now, and are by venue ($200 for 40 games at Les Murakami Stadium and $160 for 40 at Hans L'Orange Park). Individual tickets are $6 and $5 at Les Murakami and $5 and $4 at Hans L'Orange. Tickets for kids, military and seniors are $3.

More information is available at 973-7247.