Curtis Murayama: Les Murakami shares his favorite memories ahead of his 90th birthday

Les Murakami is set to turn 90 next Monday but his mind still works wonders and his stories never lack entertainment.

During a recent sit-down with the legendary former University of Hawaii baseball coach, Murakami said, “I’m an open book.”

The book includes fond and sometimes — well, maybe oftentimes — embellished stories of former Hall of Fame-level baseball players, a country music icon, and what his wife, Dot, called “his biggest achievement” — coaching Team USA from a 3-0 series deficit to win a Goodwill series in Japan.

Well, let’s turn the page to some of his favorites memories.

Terry Francona

Before “Tito” became a two-time World Series champion and a three-time manager of the year, the left-handed hitter was a star at the University of Arizona who tormented the Rainbows in the late ’70s. This one came on May 28, 1979, in a regional in Tucson, Ariz.

“Terry Francona was a terrific hitter,” Coach Les said. “He comes up and all (his hits) were on the left side, ‘pop, pop.’ ”

When he came up again, “I wanna see what this guy can do” when jammed inside.

“So we brought in the ball. Sucking guy, hit the ball, ‘Pow,’ home run we lose the game.”

Hawaii had just tied the game at 2-2 and in the fourth, Francona’s three-run homer over 400 feet in the right-field power alley helped Arizona eliminate Hawaii and win the regional.

“I guess I found out what the guy can do when I bring it (the pitch) in.”

Ron Nomura was UH’s catcher then and said Francona was taking the outside pitches and hitting “bleeders” over the shortstop. So to keep him honest, UH wanted to bust him inside.

“I called the pitch (from Jerry Stovall),” Nomura said. “Coach Les is not to be blamed on that. I’ll take the blame for that.”

Star pitcher Derek Tatsuno, who won his 20th game in the opener of that regional, was playing right field on the play.

“I was waiting for the ball to hit the fence and it never did,” Tatsuno said.

Francona went 3-for-5 with four RBIs in the 5-3 win that eliminated UH. In the winner’s bracket game the day earlier, he batted 2-for-4 with two RBIs in a 10-2 win over UH. He did not face Tatsuno, who would have pitched against the Wildcats if the Rainbows had won the elimination game.

Barry Bonds

The home-run king was a top prospect coming out of high school as a skinny 6-foot-1, 180-pounder.

“Frickin guy calls me up, (he says) how come everybody after me, how come you don’t even give me a call?” Murakami said. “I tell him, you check your grades. … I can’t even get you in the back door.

“So what he told me, I’m coming to Hawaii with the Arizona State team, and tells me, ‘You’ll find out.’ I said, ‘OK.’”

Murakami said Bonds “hardly reached the warning track” at early dimensions of Rainbow Stadium (now named after Coach Les), where it was 340 down the lines and 380 in the power alleys.

Bonds ended up going 12-for-30 with seven runs scored and four RBIs in his career against UH. He went 5-for-5 in a game that UH won 15-5 in 1983. Bonds never hit a homer against UH.

Randy Johnson

The Big Unit, you could say, was the big one who got away.

“We went up Northern California to see couple of games, so on the way back, (then assistant) Coop DeRenne, tells me drop me off over here. This is where Randy Johnson lives. We’ll make him sign the paper. Guarantee, he tells me.”

Murakami said DeRenne told him he would find his way back.

“The next day, we eating breakfast. ‘Hey, Coop, you got the paper? (DeRenne says) What paper? The paper (signed document) you went over there to sign.

“He tells me, the last minute, (then USC coach) Rod Dedeaux, flew him to L.A. and he signed with USC.”

Before Johnson became a strikeout maven in the majors, he struggled with control early on. He was 3-0 against UH but walked 20 while only striking out 10. In one game at UH in 1985, Johnson started but last only one inning, giving up four runs, including a homer to Markus Owens. But returned two days later to pitch 8 1/3 innings for the win 5-3.

Team USA

In an annual Goodwill college all-star series against Japan in 1979, Murakami was the head coach after being an assistant to Dedeaux the year before. Dedeaux said he wanted to address the team before it traveled to Japan.

“You guys gotta behave,” Murakami said as he described what Dedeaux told the players. “We’re visitors in this nice country. Watch your language. I want you guys to be good Americans.”

According to Nomura, Dedeaux told the Team USA catcher, “Hey, Ron, this is just a Goodwill game. Try not to get too intense.”

Japan — led by icons Tatsunori Hara (Hall of Famer), and catcher Kazumasa Ichikawa — took a 3-0 series lead in the best-of-seven series with 7-6, 4-3 and 6-4 wins.

After Japan’s third win, the manager addressed the home crowd.

Murakami asked Nomura, who could speak and understand some Japanese, to be “my spy.”

The Japanese manager told the crowd that the team would go to Sapporo (for Game 4) and dominate and return with the championship.

“He (Nomura) comes back. He’s pissed off. He tells me, that coach is taking us cheap,” Murakami said.

Said Nomura: “He said, they’re going to wipe us out. They’re going to sweep us. … I told the players, this is what the guy said. I added a little more adjectives in there to pump up the guys. So we started playing American baseball, started ragging Hara. Ha-ra! Ha-ra! Ha-ra! … We chanted his name and called him a bum. And the catcher, Ichi-ka-wa! Ichi-ka-wa! He looked at us. You bum! … Now we’re playing American baseball.”

As Murakami put it, so much for nice Americans we had to be ugly Americans in this instance. And that included beaning their star player Hara.

Team USA, playing as the home team in Game 4, won 5-4 in 11 innings on what Tatsuno called, Von Hayes’ “sayonara home run.”

Team USA — which also included UH players Vern Ramie, Curt Watanabe and Gene Smith — won the final three by 6-3, 10-6 and 12-2 scores, with Tatsuno, who also started Games 1 and 4 but got no decision, going the distance to win Game 7.

“In the seventh or eighth inning, Nomura hits a home run and he’s jumping for you like we won the World Series,” Tatsuno recalled.

“We had to use some physiological warfare,” Nomura said. “It didn’t become a Goodwill game. We’re out here for win.”

“That was the ultimate for coach Les to close out that series. That was a big honor,” Nomura said.

Country music legend

Conway Twitty was called “The High Priest of Country Music. The late Country music icon who’s in the Country Music and Rockabilly halls of fame was a big fan of Vanderbilt, which is located in Nashville, Tenn.

“He always comes down with Vanderbilt. He can drink,” said Murakami, who scheduled the Commodores for a series of games in 1977, 1979, 1981.

UH coaches and other UH staffers invited Twitty to drink with them after the game. It was a place in Kapalama where Murakami knew the owner.

“Conway tells her, ‘If I had a guitar, I’d give you a mini-concert. You know what she did? Shed goes in the back room and comes out with a guitar.”

There was another group in the back. “They had somebody with them and they wanted him to go up and play and sing. But he didn’t want to go.”

Twitty apparently said, “Son, I would love it if you would come up and played with me a few songs. … Finally, they (his friends) convinced him to go up.”

After performing songs together, the story goes that Twitty says, ‘Wait a minute, you’re the best entertainer I ever heard. If you come up to Tennessee you can play at the Grand Ole Opry.”

That entertainer that night was Willie K.

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Reach Curtis Murayama at [email protected].