This story was Peter Rowe's column last Tuesday. I didn't realize that Alan
had tried to send it to Pat. Pete says that Manabu is "off to Minnesota" for a tryout with the St. Paul Saints. That's not quite right. I sent an e-mail to the Saints asking if they would give Manabu a tryout. All of the scouts feel this kid can play in the independent leagues if given a chance. I've got some good leads with the Newark Bears and Sommerset Patriots in New Jersey because a friend will publicize it if they sign him. I figured that Veeck (Saints) would likewise see the PR potential of a Japanese kid and his dream to play baseball in America. Rich Nelson and I will be seeing Manabu and John Curtis (LB Breakers pitching coach on Wednesday). By the way, a friend, Bonnie Lindskoog of Prior Lake has volunteered to let Manabu stay with her and her family if the Saints will give him a tryout. If Pat does a story, maybe the Saints would give the kid a tryout. I'd be glad to send Pat a copy of correspondence from Manabu and his press clippings (all written in Japanese). There are a couple of pictures that I think you could use in a story. One shows Manabu sliding into home and the other shows him arguing the umpire's call. Eddie Olsen, baseball coach at Grossmont College, used the picture to illustrate the PROPER way to slide to his players. We can make this into a nationwide effort of American friends working together to get a Japanese kid a baseball contract. He's not another Ichiro, but he's a pretty good little second baseman with a lot of heart (and balls). Would we go to Japan to play pro ball?

What do you think, Pat and Alan?????

By the way, I was disappointed that Jerry Magee didn't mention a single PCL
Padre that attended yesterday's reuion. I wanted to make this a "special
event," but how can you judge if an event is special?

Answer: If the World's Greatest Gate-Crasher" crashes your event, it must be special, right?

Did you read Rick Reilly's column in Sports Illustrated about Dion Rich
crashing the Super Bowl? Dion is a friend of mine and he was glad to crash
the PCL Reunion yesterday. He was a real hit! Read Reilly's column. It's a
classic...

Hitting .343, but not in the right league

February 19, 2002

EL CAJON - Watching the prospect on Grossmont College's baseball diamond,
the scouts looked like Bad News Bear-ers. No smiles. No cheers. The
occasional criticism.

"I question his bat."

"It'd be one thing if he was 18 years old. But 22?"

"Unless he has great hands ... "

Most of the time, though, they just watched. Watched the player hit, field
and run.

"What are you looking for?" I wondered.

"Just looking," said Bob Dreher, a scout for the Milwaukee Brewers. "Because
you never know what the hell you are going to see."

They saw Manabu Kuramochi, a Japan Industrial League infielder. "It is my
expectation that I can play the Baseball in America," he had written to a
friend in San Diego last year. So one afternoon this month, he arrived at
Grossmont College.

To play the Baseball in America, under the cold eyes of scouts.

"I'm just out here looking," Dreher said.

historian at bat

Bill Swank wears several ball caps. Fan. Historian. Author. "But I'm not a
scout," this man with Santa-esque girth and whiskers confessed. "They all
look good to me."

Last year, he watched the tryouts of the Long Beach Breakers, an independent
club. "I saw this kid out there, he's running all over the place," Swank
said. "He just had such a great spirit."

This hustler did not make the team, but he made Swank's acquaintance. Back
in Tokyo last year, Kuramochi tore up the semi-pro Japan Industrial League,
hitting .343. In a national tournament, he led all batters with an
astonishing .487 average. Writing to his American friend, he shared his
accomplishments and dreams.

June 2001: "I want to try to go to America next year though I am not able to
understand about tryout of American Baseball . . . I am grateful looking
forward your guidance."

January 2002: "How are you doing? I am worried whether you are damaged by
the terrorism. Anyway, I am going to come to Los Angels on Feb. 1st."

Once again, the Breakers looked him over. Once again, they passed. Kuramochi
wangled two days with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Their encouragement stopped
short of a contract.

Desperate, Kuramochi called Swank.

Baffled - "I'm a historian, not an agent!" - Swank called his contacts. Ed
Olsen, the Grossmont coach, offered his field. Dreher and Bill Whittaker, an
associate scout for the Oakland A's and Montreal Expos, offered their eyes.

Right off, they noticed Kuramochi's stature: 5-foot-9, a head shorter than
Olsen's smallest player. A lead-off hitter?

"He'd have to be," Whittaker said.

Talking baseball

Accompanied by a translator, Eri Inoue, Kuramochi shook hands with the
scouts and said, "Nice to meet you." That apparently stretched his English
to the limit, but he's fluent in a universal language.

"When I mentioned 'going with the pitch and hitting to right,' Eri couldn't
translate because she doesn't understand baseball all that well," Swank
noted. "Manabu understood what I meant."

He also knows that, while Ichiro Suzuki's success with the Seattle Mariners
whetted major-league baseball's appetite for Japanese talent, his odds are
long. Kuramochi is off to Minnesota, for tryouts with St. Paul's semi-pro
club.

"He's got good actions, he hustles and tries," Whittaker said. "If the right
guy sees him, it will happen. But he's got to get out and play with guys in
faster competition."

Until then, the Baseball in America is just looking.