BASEBALL '07: Surf, Batter's Up in Hawaii Ball

What do coconuts, palm trees, hula dancers, and cool ocean breezes have in common with baseball? Well, nothing—unless you’re playing baseball in paradise.

Fortunately for three Harvard players, a summer baseball league in Hawaii provided them with that opportunity.

Captain Brendan Byrne, junior Taylor Meehan, and senior Jason Brown took part in the second annual Hawaii Collegiate Baseball League (HCBL) last summer, spending six weeks playing baseball about as far away as you can get from Cambridge and O’Donnell Field without leaving the United States.

“It was unbelievable,” Meehan beams. “I had never been to that type of place, and it was just remarkable being out there. I love the beach.”

“Every day, it’s 85 degrees and sunny, with a nice little breeze off the water,” Byrne adds. “We didn’t have a rain-out all summer.”

The HCBL is based out of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. Games are played at Aloha Stadium, the same venue where the NFL’s Pro Bowl takes place every February.

“We had about 50 fans for the 50,000-seat stadium, which was pretty cool,” Meehan notes with a laugh.

Despite the excitement of being on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there was work to be done: improving their games in an effort to come back to Cambridge stronger than ever.

“It was a lot of baseball,” Meehan asserts. “We only had like three off-days all summer.”

Players from all around the country headed to Hawaii to take part in the six-team HCBL, two teams larger than the four it started with in its inaugural summer of 2005. The league hopes to expand to eight teams next year, as it garners more support and recognition.

Most of the participants hailed from West Coast schools, Byrne and Meehan explain, such as Loyola Marymount, UCLA, and Washington. Many “big-time schools,” as Meehan suggests, were represented as well, as kids from the University of Texas, USC, and LSU participated. But, admittedly, those schools didn’t send their best players.

“It was more the kids that had red-shirted or were freshmen or sophomores [from those big schools] that were going to play a lot this year,” notes Meehan, who pitched and played infield for the Kauai Menehunes.

He suggests that while it may not have been the most established league, the environment was a good mix of competitiveness and guys just wanting to get on the field.

“It’s a developmental league,” Meehan says. “The reason why you’re out there is to play.”

While teammates such as junior third-baseman Steffan Wilson toiled away in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League, Meehan, Byrne, and Brown enjoyed the slightly more relaxed atmosphere in Hawaii.

“It was definitely a competitive league, but it wasn’t like some of the other college leagues,” Byrne says. “It was more everyone trying to get better.”

With the emphasis on player improvement, everyone got a significant amount of time on the field to hone their skills.

“I got to play a lot, I got a lot of experience,” notes Byrne, who played infield for the Kamuela Paniolos. “It was a productive summer.”

Head coach Joe Walsh explains that he just wants his players to be in the right spot for the summer, anywhere that will help them improve.

“Summertime, you have to play,” Walsh asserts. “So we try to place kids in an environment where they have a good chance of competing for a spot and playing a lot.”

And play they did. Three HCBL games were played daily, which meant each team saw action every day during the 35-game schedule, with the occasional Monday rest. Play concluded in the final week of July with a four-day playoff-style tournament.

But, even playing at a pace of a game a day, there was certainly some downtime.

“If you had a 7:00 p.m. game, you’d get up and go to the beach until about 3:30 or 4:00,” Byrne recalls. “It wasn’t a bad deal.”

It isn’t surprising, then, that other Crimson players are looking to spend next summer in the HCBL. Junior Jeff Stoeckel is already planning his trip.

“Obviously, the appeal of Hawaii is that you’re in Hawaii,” Stoeckel says. “You don’t get the crowds, but since it’s a new league, it hasn’t really gained the reputation yet.”

“It’s a more relaxed environment where you’re not going to be banging yourself in the head because there are 20 scouts watching you,” he adds. “You go 0-for-4 during the day, you go to the beach at night, come back, clear your head, and go 4-for-4 the next day.”

Walsh admits, however, that it is difficult to track his players’ progress when they are more than 5,000 miles from Cambridge.

“It’s hard to follow out there,” Walsh explains. “I’ve never seen a game [in the HCBL], so I don’t even know what the quality of the competition is. And if I did go out there, I think that would have been my whole budget that I have for traveling. One trip to Hawaii could’ve taken care of it all.”

Having sent players each of the past two summers, Harvard has developed a relationship with the league and will be looking to send even more players this summer. Walsh suggests that as many as seven players may attend in the summer of 2007.

Meanwhile, the HCBL certainly has its participants’ seal of approval.

“We went swimming pretty much every day,” Meehan says. “We rented surfboards, went skydiving, rented mopeds on the island, slept on some beaches. It was awesome.”

—Staff writer Kevin C. Reyes can be reached at kreyes@fas.harvard.edu.