Hawaii Winter Baseball

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Hawaii Winter Baseball
Founded	1993
Class	winter league; loose affiliation with Major League Baseball
Based in	Honolulu, Hawaii
Chief Executive Officer	Duane Kurisu
Official Website	Hawaii Winter Baseball

Hawaii Winter Baseball, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a professional baseball league located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It is loosely affiliated with Major League Baseball. The Hawaii Winter League was started in 1993, but the history of baseball goes almost all the way back to when baseball began.

Alexander Joy Cartwright, the founder of organized baseball, moved to Hawaii in 1849, only three years after creating the rules of the game in New York state.

The popularity of baseball caught on in Hawaii immediately.

The first baseball game in Hawaii to be saved for the record books was played on July 4, 1866 and saw the "natives" beating the "haoles" (Caucasians) 2-1.

Babe Ruth even played in two exhibition games in Hawaii in 1933. The following year, baseball greats like J. Foxx and Lou Gehrig joined the Great Bambino for more exhibition games.

By the mid-1940's, 26,000 fans would cram the bleachers to watch Major League All-Star games. Rosters of the games played here during WWII included Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Pee Wee Reese, Schoolboy Rowe, and Vernon Olson.

The wooden Honolulu Stadium, nicknamed "The Termite Palace," was home to Hawaii's first traveling professional team, the Hawaii Islanders, which launched in 1961 with the beginning of regular air travel between Hawaii and the mainland United States. Later, with a move to modern Aloha Stadium and a division title-winning 1970 season in the Pacific Coast League, the Hawaii team lead all the mainland Minor League teams in attendance-- with 470,000 fans that year. The Islanders played for 27 seasons, winning three more division titles and two more PCL pennants.

In 1993, after a five-year hiatus for professional baseball in the Hawaiian islands, professional baseball returned in the form of the Hawaii Winter Baseball League. Teams composed of some of the best prospects from 16 American Major League teams, 3 Japanese pro teams, and 4 Korean pro teams took to the ballparks all over Hawaii.

The ultimate dream of playing in the Major Leagues came true for 130 HWB players who played in the Hawaii Winter Baseball League from 1993-1997. Hawaii baseball fans recognized the potential of the young pro talent in the league which included the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Jason Giambi, Alex Ochoa, Michael Barrett, Tadahito Iguchi, A.J. Pierzynski, Todd Helton, Adam Kennedy, Mark Kotsay, Preston Wilson, and Randy Winn.

When HWB opened in 1993, with 16 of the 28 Major League club systems sending players.

The total attendance for the inaugural season was 53,383, exceeding the 50,000 Pro Bowl attendance, Hawaii's only other professional sports event.

1997 was the last playing season of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league.

The Hawaii Winter Baseball league will return in 2006 for its sixth season.^[1]

[edit] References

Hawaii Winter Baseball
Honolulu Sharks • North Shore Honu • Waikiki Beach Boys • West Oahu CaneFires

[edit] External links

• The official published history of Hawaii Winter Baseball Catch the Dream: The Story of Hawaii Winter Baseball by Lance Tominaga. ISBN 0-9779143-4-8.

• Catch all games live via streaming audio on Iamhawaii.com

• Want to talk HWB? Join the Hawaii Winter Baseball web community on Iamhawaii.com. Click here to join.