Aloha From Maui: On the Road with Mav

Na Koa Ikaika Maui

Aloha From Maui: On the Road with Mav

By: Jay Szech

          Common logic dictates that when you get married and take a honeymoon to beautiful Hawaiian Islands, you generally put aside your work for a few weeks and just enjoy being in a warm tropical setting with the person you love. Luckily for me, my new wife married a completely illogical man who just can’t seem to slip away from a ballpark for more than a few hours.  Dinners and sunsets, surfing and snorkeling are all well and good, but when you get the chance to see independent North American League baseball you have to go, even if it does mean a 2.5 mile walk from your cruise ship. I mentioned before I have a very patient wife.

          Iron Stadium in Wailuku is less of a shrine to America’s pastime and more of a post-war concrete bunker.  This doesn’t seem to dissuade the locals who have embraced the Na Koa Ikaika Maui (The Strong Warriors of Maui).  The general consensus seems to be “there’s grass…play ball.”  We’re early but that doesn’t matter. Upon informing Sammy the security guard of my esteemed status in Aberdeen, he promptly handed Deb and I two tickets to the game and bestows a quick blessing for our recent wedding (I think the state of Hawaii moved all the jerks to the Phoenix Sky Harbor but that’s for a different column).  Milling around the ballpark I was amazed at how small the crowd was but how passionate they were about their local team.  I even ran into Branscomb Richmond from the TV series ‘Renegade’!and nowapparently a Maui fan.

          The passion for independent league baseball is just as fervent as the energy seen every night in affiliated ballparks across the country.  Players are known by their first names and chances are they eat at the same restaurants and hang out on the same beaches as many of the locals.  Many of the players are former college and high school players looking to get picked up by a major league or Japanese club.  The club is not without its quirks as management knows that it’s all about the draw. Currently, the Maui club is the home of  knuckleballerEri Yoshida, the winningest female pitcher in men’s professional baseball.The team also uses the obligatory games and mascots but the real draw for this connoisseur of the grill is the burgers prepared on-site by local beach grub shack Teddy’s.  After a failed attempt to convince Teddy to become my personal chef and a disapproving look from my bride, I quickly abandoned the effort and found my way to our seats.

          After finding our way back to the seats we were welcomed over the PA by the local deejay that functions as the game MC.  The folks in Maui were nice enough to answer my questions and I, in-turn, became the de-facto director of the tourism board for Baltimore and Aberdeen.  As I lobbied for an exchange program between the IronBirds and the Na Koa Ikaika, I couldn’t help but wonder…how does an independent team make money?  A fair question, as most minor league teams in the U.S. struggle with that very question year after year whether they are affiliated or not.

          After finishing my sales pitch on Aberdeen, my new friend Sammy pulled me aside. “There’s someone I need you to meet.”

I was hoping it wasn’t the Maui Police Department.  David Andrus is Chief Operating Officer for the club and was shocked to find this mysterious visitor from the east sitting in his ballpark. “Baltimore? How’d you end up here?” he asked.

  “The big boat,” I replied, pointing towards the cruise ship in the distance.  This independent club is run in a similar manor to most small scale minor league organizations but with a skeleton crew.  Andrus and other investors saw the golden opportunity to revive island league baseball and make an attempt to become affiliated with a professional league.

          After Major League Baseball discontinued its Hawaiian League in 2008, baseball fans were left only with high school and college baseball.  Owner Robert Young and Andrus saw an opportunity to bring pro baseball back to the Islands when they purchased the NABL’s Fresno club and relocated them to Maui in 2010.  The problem with minor and independent leagues though, is that teams often fold or take a year off to restructure. When this happens leagues are often unbalanced and scramble to find new clubs.  This prompted the creation of the Hawaii Stars based out of Hilo, which balanced the league but has also added a new angle to the return of pro ball to Hawaii.  According to Andrus, this may lead to becoming an affiliate of a Japanese club or potentially opening the door to China as the game continues to grow on the international level.

          Like all outings to the ballpark, ours sadly was cut short.  When the wife wants to see the sunset from the top of a crater you should probably oblige, at least that’s what the mascot whispered to me.  If you happen to be in Maui during the summer, the Na Koa Ikaika Maui is worth your time and it’s a great place to spend a warm Hawaiian afternoon. And when you stop in tell them Jay in Aberdeen says Mahalo.