Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project
Honolulu Record, Volume 10 No. 3, Thursday, August 15, 1957 p. 4
Some Answers on the Global Series
A number of points need to be made clear, and questions answered about the representation Hawaii will send to the Global World Series in Detroit in September. Perhaps enough information hasn't been given the fans. Perhaps something got twisted.
In any event, the contingent from Hawaii will be exactly what the authorities who run the series ordered, we are assured by Earl K. Vida, the man who directs Hawaii's efforts in this direction.
Invitations are issued for 16 players, a coach, a manager, and a representative of
"the government of the state or principality receiving the invitation.
The expenses are paid by the Global Series which issues the invitation. Manager Earl Vida and Coach "Dutchy" Olson are taking their wives at their own expense. So is Duke Kahanamoku, who rep-resents the government of Hawaii.
There is no berth available that is being taken by any sort of "deadhead" as rumors in some quarters have indicated.
So Why Duke Kahanamoku? That's another question being asked by some who feel the person to fill this spot should be someone who more clearly represents either baseball, or government in Hawaii.
The answer, in part, is that the invitation went to the governor and the governor couldn't attend and appointed Duke, an official of the C-C government and a great Hawaiian champion, to represent him. It will be the third year in a row Duke has acted in this capacity, having first been chosen by Mrs. Farrington when she was Delegate to Congress. The first representative Mrs. Farrington chose was Dr. Katsumi Kometani.
That brings up another question—why did the invitation start coming to the governor the first year Jack Burns got elected to Congress? We didn't get what we consider a fully satisfactory answer from Mr. Vida on that, but then maybe he doesn't know the answer. Anyhow, he said the Global Series committee on the Mainland had decided to turn the invitation closer the home government. Since Mr. Vida is on this end, possibly he's in no position to know whether or not there's more to the story than that. Personally, we have a hunch there might be.But we are not among those who consider. Duke a poor choice. We'll venture a guess that Duke's, name is still known to more people on the Mainland than that of any other Hawaiian. Possibly the reason we think so is that we first discovered it when we were a slothful schoolboy wending our weary way home from grade school, stopping long enough in the drug store to read through some farm almanac and note the strange name among Olympic record holders, For a good many years, Duke Kahanamoku was the only person from Hawaii we'd ever consciously heard of, and we'll bet a lot of country kids down through the years, since grown and growing, are in the same boat.
Under the circumstances, we think Duke can represent Hawaiian sports very well on the Mainland, and his office of sheriff gives a governmental touch to his representation.
Locally of course, there are those who feel Duke might have done more to train and assist young swimmers, but that's neither here nor there. He proved his immense popularity locally by winning his election in runaway style last fall while absent, himself, representing Hawaii at the Melbourne Olympics. So the Duke needs no defense, but it's a pleasure to go on record on the subject, anyhow.As for the manner of selecting the 16 players, a local committee has already selected 16 tentative choices at random. But the elimination games haven't been completed. When they are, eight will be chosen from that 16, to go along with the winning team, or eight from that team.
Eearl Vida is not a member of the committee that did the choosing of the 16 tentative travellers.