Hawaii Winter Baseball provides a cross-cultural exchange

By Tracy Chan and Tiffany Hill

Baseball may be the all-American sport, but for young players from Japan, it is an opportunity to come to Hawaii and expand their cultural boundaries while playing the game, which for them is a universal language.

Approximately a quarter of the players on the four Winter Baseball league teams are from Japan this year. The cross-cultural partnership between Japan and America is unique to the Hawaii Winter Baseball League. Even though not all the players speak each other’s language, there are translators for each team, and it makes picking up a different culture necessary to work together.

“In terms of baseball they get to see a different style of play,” said Hawaii Winter Baseball Sports Information Director Kyle Galdeira. “They get to interact and learn each other’s language and culture, using the game.”

For many of the young men, most of them in their early 20s, even their game has changed slightly from exposure to the American teams. Fuminori Yokogawa, the 23-year-old right fielder for the Sharks, said that playing in Hawaii has made him think differently about the game and his technique. “I realized I can’t hit a ball with just power,” he said. “My baseball style and what I’ve done here are quite different."

The Hawaii Winter Baseball League started up in 1993, although the history of baseball in the islands stretches back to 1849, when the founder of organized baseball, Alexander Joy Cartwright, moved to the islands, and his game caught on like wildfire.

In 1993, after a five-year break, Hawaii Winter Baseball owner Duane Kurisu invested in getting the game back in front of its fans, and started up an international baseball league with teams composed of young people from 16 American major league teams, three Japanese pro teams, and four Korean pro teams. It was Kurisu’s dream, he wrote in the 1993 inaugural season yearbook, that one day there would be a true professional international world series.

In the 1995 season, the League organized a "home-stay" program where players stayed with a family in Hawaii, much like a foreign exchange program. Players pay their host families about $500 a month for the two months they stay, and in return have access to food, laundry facilities, and whatever else they need to live.

The families that volunteer to host player are screened to make sure they can provide a comfortable, friendly and safe environment for their guest, and often the relationships forged between a player and a host family last far beyond the baseball season. “Most of the players end up keeping in touch with the host families as they move up,” said Galdeira. “Some of the guys that are now in the majors still keep in touch with their hosts.”

Hawaii Winter Baseball is a good place to get noticed by scouts from the Major League. As a world-class event, Hawaii Winter Baseball provides representatives from Major League teams like the Orioles and the Red Sox a chance to catch a young player with incredible promise, or to research play styles and techniques.

In addition, Hawaii Winter Baseball has formed an American/Asian business network that has proven to be highly successful, and enables companies from both sides to reach a large international audience with their products.  The games are broadcast in the U.S. and Asia, reaching an estimated 75 million people. “It’s gained quite a bit of appreciation around the country,” said Dave Rolf, the publicist for the League. “There’s a small but growing fan base in major league baseball.”