Posted on: Sunday, June 1, 2003

HAWAI'I HOMEGROWN REPORT
Higa wore out foes and baseball pants

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

KEVIN HIGA

Some day, Kevin Higa may be inducted into the Babson College (Mass.) Athletics Hall of Fame.

But his baseball pants already are displayed on the Wall of Fame in Babson's athletics equipment room.

Equipment manager Elvira Howard explains:

"When I came to work here last summer, they told me all the baseball uniforms were new that season. I was sorting them and I came across this unbelievably beat-up pair of game pants that looked like they were a hundred years old. They had dirt stains all over, and they were ripped across both knees.

"I said, 'You can't tell me this pair of pants has been used for only one season.'

" 'Yes, a coach said, they're Kevin Higa's.'

" 'Who is he?' I demanded."

" 'The best baseball player Babson ever had come through its doors,' he said."

Higa left Babson last month with a degree in business and is back at his 'Aiea home, but he has left his pants behind as a Babson treasure.

On May 3, Higa, a 1999 Maryknoll graduate, was honored at the 22nd annual Senior Athletics Banquet as Babson's Senior Male Athlete of the Year, just a few days after he had been chosen the New England conference (NEWMAC) baseball Player of the Year.

In announcing the Babson award, coach Matt Noone held up THE pants and said, "These say all you need to know about Kevin Higa as a player.

"They are torn. Ground in with dirt, and completely worn out from top to bottom. They symbolize what Kevin has given to baseball and athletics here at Babson. He truly has nothing left to prove or give to his sport or his school."

Higa is leaving Babson more than his pants. He is leaving his name in the baseball record books.

He is the single-game record holder in hits, home runs (3) and total bases.

He is the single-season record holder in hits (68), doubles (17), triples (6), RBIs (50) and total bases (117). The doubles record was set this season, the others in 2002.

Higa is Babson's career leader in hits (197), RBIs (137), doubles (41) and total bases (312). He is second in runs scored (135), triples (10) and home runs (18).

He is third all-time with a .564 slugging percentage and fourth with a .356 career batting average.

He got on base about 45 percent of his times at bat. "At any level that number would place him among the game's elite," Noone said.

"I cannot say if his records will last forever," Noone told the audience, "but I can state unequivocally that no one will ever have more clutch and meaningful RBIs than Kevin. Over the last two seasons, in virtually every key situation where Babson needed a run, Kevin Higa was there to drive it home."

In his senior season, Higa led Babson in seven offensive categories, including his .383 batting average and .584 slugging average.

"What he is," said coach Noone, "is that complete package that coaches don't often get — a smart player, a passionate player, a really talented player, an instinctive player, a very hard-working player who did all the little things.

"I coach summers in the Cape Cod League with some of the best players in the country," Noone said. "I've coached future big league infielders like John McDonald of the Indians and Mark DeRosa of the Braves and I can say with full belief and conviction that Kevin Higa could have played for any team in the country."

As long as they had enough pants to keep him in uniform.