Posted at 3:20 p.m., Thursday, August 2, 2007
Hawaii Winter Baseball won't play at Murakami Stadium
Advertiser Staff
Hawaii Winter Baseball announced today that it will play all of its 2007 schedule at Hans L'Orange Park in Waipahu, save for 12 games on Neighbor Islands, because of the apparent unavailability of Les Murakami Stadium during the fall.The offseason developmental league that features U.S. minor leaguers and up-and-coming players in Japan's pro league was revived last year after running from 1993 to 1997. Murakami Stadium had been always used in previous seasons. The league cited in a press release that it would not be able to use Murakami because of "stadium renovations likely to take place" in the fall. The UH stadium is scheduled to have its turf replaced before the start of the 2008 season.
The league runs Sept. 29 to Nov. 19. Doubleheaders will be played at Hans L'Orange with game times set for noon and 6:30 p.m. The 6 1/2-hour gap between games is to give players in the night cap adequate pre-game warmups, a league spokesman said. Also, the league is still contemplating whether there will be separate admission charges for each game or if a ticket will be good for both games. The only time there will be single games is when one of the other games will be played on either Maui or the Big Island.
The same four teams from last season — Honolulu Sharks, West Oahu CaneFires, North Shore Honu and Waikiki BeachBoys — will still be based on O'ahu. But there will be six games at Maui's Iron Maehara Stadium Sept. 2 to 4 and Sept. 6 to 8, as well as at Hilo's Wong Stadium Sept. 19 to 21 and Oct. 2 to 4.
