Baseball, beer and bonding
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
You can't have more fun in Honolulu than playing hooky from work for a couple of hours in the afternoon at the Rainbow Easter Baseball Tournament, which winds up its annual week-long run in Manoa tomorrow.
Those who don't know any better will tell you it's baseball, baseball, baseball. Four games a day for seven straight days. True enough. But there's also so much more to see and do, even for those who know nothing about baseball.
Just sit back and enjoy:
• The honest-to-goodness, corn-fed, happy-to-be-here look on the faces of fans visiting with their team from Wichita, Kan., where it's still very much winter.
• Your first cold beer of the day.
• The way a hot dog really does taste better at the ball park.
• The tradition that states U.S. flags always fly closest to center field at a stadium.
• The lineup of professional scouts pointing their radar guns in unison at a 19-year-old kid from Idaho.
• The bald, topless guy, chewing on an unlit cigar and literally glistening in the sun in the first row second-deck seats.
• Les Murakami's presence hovering everywhere around Rainbow Stadium, along with prayers for his quick return.
• The way everybody has taken to calling the stadium's new, closer outfield wall Baby Blue, the same way they called the old one Big Blue.
• The smell of Coppertone.
• Ice cream, nachos, kielbasa, peanuts, chicken strips, churros, popcorn, french fries, pizza, li hing mango, and all sorts of other things that give you a really good stomach ache.
• The handful of fans watching the game from Row 21, Section G, even though there are 3,000 open seats closer to home.
• Your second cold beer — and not feeling guilty about it.
• The old guy who gave a foul ball to a begging kid, even though he (the old guy) has probably been waiting all his life to catch that one for himself.
• The way you can see traffic pushing by on the H-3 Freeway, forcing you to wonder what's so darn important that they would not want to be here playing hooky with you, too.
• The lone guy who still watches the games from a hillside behind center field.
• UH basketball player Scott Ostler draping his 6-foot-10-inch frame over two rows of seats, taking his shirt off, then dancing with his hands as the loudspeakers play "YMCA" between innings.
• The way the UH fans, armed with seat cushions and bento boxes, start arriving at the stadium as early as 2 p.m., even though the Hawai'i game doesn't start for another four hours.
• Your third — or was it your fourth? — cold beer.
Mike Leidemann's columns appear in the Advertiser on Thursdays and Saturdays. He can be reached by phone (525-5460) when he's not at the ballpark, or by e-mail (mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com).
