Hana, Hawai’i: A Diamond in the Rough

"Editor’s note: While barnstorming the landscapes of Maui isn’t exactly a cornerstone of the Los Angeles sports scene, it’s important to take note of what we find when we travel, and relate to what we do when we’re home. For baseball blogger, Samuel Archila, this was a prime example of relating a dusty a diamond in the middle of the Pacific, to a game back home that we cherrish. Enjoy yourself, with a fresh take of Sunday reading. – MC"

I was lucky enough to tour the beautiful island of Maui, home of hidden beauties and unknown treasures. My family and I took a tour through the east side of Maui, a fairly remote area that, at points, does not even have a nicely paved road. It took 617 curves, 56 one lane bridges and about five hours for me to get from my hotel in Kana’apali to Hana, where I’d discover a little known, sort of beat-up baseball park. Nothing more than a simple diamond at first sight. Once the tour guide began telling the story behind Hana Ballpark, I quickly realized it was like most of Hawai’i, another treasure hidden in plain sight.

He began talking about a businessman by the name of Paul Fagan. Fagan purchased some property in Hana in the 1940’s and decided to build some one-room shacks. His idea was to built many of these shacks and rent them out to tourists. The problem, was not many tourists came to the backside of Maui because of the lack of paved roads and the risky narrow paths that led to this hidden gem. After a couple years, Fagan’s shacks began to have a couple tourists here and there. He would get about 20 per month, but that wasn’t enough to make a good profit. He decided he would use his influence to bring people into Maui and over to Hana, and in 1944, he purchased a majority ownership of the San Fransisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. In 1947, Fagan would make Hana a well known place by just one simple experiment. So Fagan, was known for the high salaries he paid and the luxuries he gave to his players,took it a step further.

He made a virtually unknown city into the Spring Training location for the Seals. His idea was to give his players a reward, but more importantly, to bring people to his resort. He knew that the best way to get the word out to the mainland about his resort was through the newspapers. By bringing the Seals to Hana, he would also attract a ton of newspaper and sports writers along with fans while the team was in spring training. This worked perfectly, as headlines weren’t covering the team as much as they were the town. “Heavenly Hana”. “Aways from Waikiki, a place for you and me”. “Heaven on Earth in Hana”. Newspapers were covered in headlines that lured tourists into Hana and made Fagan an even wealthier man. Sure enough, this experiment would help the team as well, as Fagan’s Maui spring training was the start of a pennant season for the Seals in 1946. Fagan would continue this for only a couple more years. The Seals were on a decline since no major league team would affiliate themselves with the San Francisco based team, forcing Fagan to sell his portion of the ownership in 1951, yet he would stay in Maui till he passed away in 1960.

A cross was erected in Hana, HI and is illuminated every year on Fagan’s birthdate, death date and major holidays to honor the man that put Hana on the map. As for the Seals, they would move to Phoenix and bounce around until they became the Reno Aces, a Triple-A affliate for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now before the Seals became affliated, they had a player who would soon make his mark in the Majors. A youngster playing alongside his older brother, by the name of Joe Dimaggio played for the Seals in 1932-1935 before being sold to the New York Yankees and eventually having a Hall of Fame career including nine World Series Championships. The Seals also had Harry Feldman on their roster for the last two seasons of his baseball career. Feldman pitched from 1941-1946 with the New York Giants.

This little town got me wondering about how many players had actually come out of the island of Maui that have made it in the big leagues. With some research and a conversation with a teacher, I quickly found out that the second largest island in the state of Hawaii was home to one retired and three active baseball players. Tony Rego, who pitched in the mid-1920’s, is the only retired player to be born in Maui. Kanekoa Texeria, who is currently a free agent and last pitched for the Yankees AAA affiliate, the Scranton-Wilkes-Barres Yankees, was born in Maui and attended the Kamehameha schools in Honolulu. He, like his cousin, broke into the majors representing the island. Kurt Suzuki, catcher for the Oakland A’s, was born in Wailuku, but the most known player out of Maui, and Texeria’s cousin, is in fact, the Flyin Hawai’ian. Shane Victorino was also born in Wailuku. In my tourstop in Hana, I met a lady named Carol. After I heard her talking about the Phillies, I approached her. After a while, she told me she had taught at the school where Shane Victorino attended. I’m not quite sure if elementary or high school, but she is surely a Phillies fan.

After a day full of adventure, I came back to the hotel and realized that many things like Hana Ballpark go unnoticed. On the road through the backside of Maui, I saw so many amazing sights. Not only black sand beaches, but waterfalls, lava cones, lava tubes and historic sights. But I also learned a lot about the island’s story. I encourage you to visit the island of Maui and take the Heavenly Hana tour. If you aren’t blown away by what you see, I will be impressed. If you can’t make the trip out here, then take a tour of your city. You might find a treasure hidden in plain sight. From the beautiful beach here in Kana’apali, Hawaii, Mahalo and Aloha.