Team studies, has a little fun
By Clyde Tanabe
Special to The Advertiser
For the first time since 1988, Hawai'i has a representative at the Little League World Series for 11 and 12 year olds in Williamsport, Pa.
Clyde Tanabe, 47, is Waipi'o's manager. His son Kurt, 12, is a member of the team.
Tanabe agreed to share his thoughts with Advertiser readers in a daily diary during the World Series.
The kids woke up this morning and watched the highlights on ESPN again.
They were still cheering for themselves. They knew the whole clip already.
Half the kids went to breakfast, half were too tired and wanted to sleep in. We got to bed 10:30 p.m. last night (Friday).
We had a long study hall today, from about 9 a.m. to 12 o'clock.
Then lunch.
My third coach, Gordon Oshiro (coaches outfield and studies opposition statistics), arrived from Hawai'i.
We picked him up from the airport, got back and went to the batting cages.
We made friends with the North Carolina and Northern California teams.
The coaches took in part of the Northern California (Aptos lost 4-1 to Louisville, Ky.) and North Carolina (Clemmons lost to Harlem, N.Y., 9-3) games.
The Harlem kids are big; they're huge. And they're good players.
I gave the kids an option to watch the game or swim, and they chose to swim.
They swam about couple hours, till 5 p.m., and got to swim with the Northern California kids. Then, they went into the rec room to play ping pong and video games.
Later, we got to eat Zippy's chili — (radio personality) Larry Price sent it up for us — and got some rice. They haven't had rice for awhile now. We had chili, pork adobo and saimin and they're scuffing everything.
They're not going to get that kind of food. They've been away so long they're missing it right now.
A lot of kids were waiting for our kids so they could trade pins (a Little League tradition). Hawai'i pins are a premium up here, so they should get three to one on them.
Tonight was sundae night in which they can make their own ice cream sundaes.
I told them, you guys better start running, so you can lose that weight.
We'll probably open with Travis Jones (righthander) as the starter (today against Fort Worth, Texas). He's going as far as he can and we'll bring in Cory Yuh if we need to.
The reason is, Travis is our catcher. If I catch Travis and throw Cory, Travis will be too tired because of this heat and humidity; it's draining.
It's easier to pitch first then catch rather then catch first then pitch.
(Kelsey Outram) cannot play anymore. His spirits are good. He's back to normal. I feel sorry for him. He made it this far, but he has to watch and he can't play. It's unfortunate.
