Empyreal Environs

I was supposed to see the UH Rainbows play the Texas-Arlington Mavericks last night at Les Murakami Stadium. It would have been the first Bows games in the First Hawaii Title Rainbow Baseball Tournament, featuring a fairly competitive group of teams. In addition to the Mavericks, the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Washington Huskies are also visiting the islands.

I did see the last few innings of the Razorbacks-Huskies contest. The team from the Northwest handed the eleventh-place Arkansas club their first loss of the season. The Huskies (or Dawgs, as the University of Washington’s website calls them) had a four-run first inning and concluded the match-up with a 5-2 score. Tim Lincecum, the Dawgs’ right-handed starting pitcher and All-American last year, pitched a season-high seven innings with two runs, four hits, five bases on balls, and eight strikeouts.

Since UH baseball games are, sadly, sparsely attended, so I had exceptional seats right behind home plate and five rows back. In my area, there were about a half a dozen scouts, including an older Japanese-American gentleman who I believe works with the Red Sox. I have seen his name is past media guides and I can’t recall it at the moment. I didn’t go up to speak with the scouts because they looked busy, but it was neat to overhear their conversations. I’m sure they will be back this Thursday evening to check out Steven Wright, the 2005 Russ Ford Award recipient for outstanding relief pitcher in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Collegiate Baseball has the Bows ranked 24th; they are not currently ranked in the top 25 by Baseball America and USA Today, so these tournament games against nationally-ranked teams are crucial. Hopefully then the team will start getting more attention.