The major leaguers play Kaua‘i All Stars On Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18, 1952, a team of major league ballplayers — four of whom would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame — played a select team of Kauai
The major leaguers play Kaua‘i All Stars
On Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18, 1952, a team of major league ballplayers — four of whom would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame — played a select team of Kauai All Stars before an estimated 4,000 fans at Isenberg Field in Lihu‘e.
Future Hall of Famers Nellie Fox of the White Sox, the Yankees’ Yogi Berra, Brooklyn Dodger shortstop Harold “Pee Wee” Reese and the Cardinals’ Enos “Country” Slaughter graced the big league lineup, along with pitcher Eddie Lopat, outfielder Hank Sauer, right fielder Jackie Jensen, first baseman Eddie Robinson and Yankee infielder Billy Martin.
Martin, whose Portuguese father, Alfred Manuel Martin, had emigrated to Hawaii from the Azores and had lived in Kalaheo before moving to Oakland, was given a welcoming reception by many friends and relatives during pre-game ceremonies.
The big league ballplayers scored 15 runs on 24 hits and no errors in nine innings, including five home runs — one each by Robinson, Slaughter, Berra, Jensen and Sauer, with Sauer’s traveling at least 420 feet over left-center field. Despite losing by the lopsided score of 15 to 1, the local players acquitted themselves well, with 8 hits and one error against some of the best players in the world.
The Kauai All Stars scored when Buster Matsumura reached first on a fielder’s choice with Fukunaga thrown out at second. Okino then flied out to right field and Matsumura stole second. When Paul Silva singled Lopat’s pitch between third and short, Matsumura came home.
And the locals pulled a triple play on the professionals in the fourth, with Matsumura, Lefty Hirota and Charlie Hoshino being credited with put-outs, and Matsumura, Hirota and Richard Vidinha getting assists.
Kauai All Stars’ Casey Moniz, Lee, Ko- yanagi, Carvalho, and Nozaki also played.
