Baseball in Paradise

by monksathletics

 

Hello! Ever since my last blog a few things have happened.  A few nights ago I ended up cutting my foot when a glass fell on it so I’ve been hobbling around a little bit.  However, it was a great opportunity for me to visit the lovely hospital in Hawaii!  Hopefully my foot will be healed up in no time and I’ll be back on the field. 

On a more positive note yesterday we got the chance to head over to Pearl Harbor, the site of one of the most famous attacks on the United States in history.  At Pearl Harbor there were about 40 of us baseball players, all between the ages of 18 and 22.  The tour guide really stressed to us the fact most of the men fighting for our country that day were our age, making it extremely difficult to fathom what these young men must have went through. 

The other catcher on my team had stayed on the base for a few weeks before the league started as part of his ROTC program and he was nice enough to give us a small tour.  In the museums there were stories from that day and interesting facts surrounding what led to the attack that day in 1941.  After walking around the museums for a while they had us watch a film on the events that led up to that day, the events that occurred on that day, and the impact that resulted from the attack.

After the film they had us take a small ferry to the site where the USS Arizona was sunk.  At the site you could see the sunken ship still under water, still leaking oil since the day it went down.  It was definitely quite the site and it really puts the events we learned in history class into perspective. 

After visiting Pearl Harbor we went to an International Marketplace set up outside of the Aloha Stadium, home of the University of Hawaii football team.  At the market place they were selling all sorts of Hawaiian items and shirts for barely any money at all.  All in all it was a day that will not be forgotten.

Here is a picture of one of the ships at Pearl Harbor…

Talk to you all next week!

-Joe Coyne