4B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DIRY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2007
BASEBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
for what college life in America was like. This helped when Yo dropped the idea of wanting to take off for the U.S.
Thus, the two embarked on making plans.
"In my high school, it's pretty much focused on playing baseball," Hayakawa said. "We just practiced, practiced, practiced. I never really had a chance to study at all. Like I usually would go to class and fall asleep. I still
Still desiring the extremely different environment, he chose the Midwest. When he found infor-
"The best thing about it is he's probably a month and a half away from being done and he's working as hard now as when he started."
do here, but there I didn't really have time to study and I kind of felt, like just playing baseball all my high school life."
tion where he could succeed in both baseball and academics. America,he knew, was full of such places.
Toward the end of that high school road. Yo realized that academics were part of the schooling process for a reason. These reasons, however, were much more difficult to find in an environment that had him and his teammates in practice every day from 3 to nearly 7 p.m. on top of scheduled individual workouts.
Rather than fall into a similar pattern in college, Yo began to narrow his focus toward an institu-
RYAN GRAVES Pitching coach
mation on the Internet about the University of Kansas and its association with the baseball-heavy Big 12 Conference, things started to click.
"Me and my dad were like 'All right, let's go!" Hayakawa said.
"I didn't know what the campus looked like. I didn't know what the baseball field looked like. I didn't know anybody but I was all 'All right, let do it.'"
Adding to the stress of moving half way around the world, Kansas baseball was in complete remodeling mode five years ago. Coach Ritch Price and assistant Graves had just arrived to build the scene that Havakawa was trying to break into.
When he showed up to request a tryout, he approached Steve Abney, the pitching coach at the time whom Yo had mistaken for the head coach. The only instruction Abney could
give was to show up for walk on tryouts later in the fall.
"The best thing about him is I don't think there is any quit in him," Graves said. "I know he'd probably wanted more innings over the span of his career, and he's worked hard at gaining those innings and he's worked everyday at getting better. The best thing about it is he's probably a month and a half away from being done and he's working as hard now as when he started."
If he hadn't made the team, he still would have contemplated staying at Kansas. But, he was a hit.
After being picked up as a walkon his freshman year, Hayakawa has had his work cut out for him as he transformed from a starter in high school to a reliever in college. Because of NCAA international eligibility rules, he spent two semesters at Kansas as a red shirt before making an impact out of the bullpen in the 2004 season. During which time, he learned how to "Americanize" as he put it. Although he would still opt for fish once in a while over the team's typical steak dinner after games and is still amazed at how big all of the players are in the States.
Although he refused to admit to the amount of courage needed to maintain an attitude like his, Hayakawa described his first encounters with the baseball team as
very quiet ones. Price, who regards Yo as one of his favorite players from the 29 years he's been coaching, still remembers practices where his pitchers would work on situations such as pick-offs and communicating drills with Hayakawa was nearly impossible. Hayakawa guessed almost two years passed before he could speak English with any affluence.
Disaster stunned his sophomore season.
Yo made just one appearance in 2005 before bone spurs in his elbow forced him to sit the year
out for surgery. Still struggling with English, Hayakawa now had to communicate pain to a world that couldn't understand him. Yet, he never once thought of returning home.
"He's a pretty mentally tough
the frustration you're having, but he handled it great. I never got the feeling that he was thinking about going home. He just kept working and doing everything he could to get back to healthy."
Healthy again, Hayakawa is putting up career numbers in his final season as a jayhawk. In 12 appearances this year, he is 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA, but has struck out 16 batters compared to giving up only two walks in a role that he said fit his personality.
Hayakawa is constantly giving the credit to someone else. His graff
"He'll be one of these guys that 10 years from now, when I'm done here, he'll have a legacy. Everybody loves that guy."
kid," Graves said. "I think, putting myself in his shoes, he's got to be homesick at some point, and obviously things weren't going great for him on the baseball field just from getting banged up. It would have to be frustrating not to be able to communicate all
RITCH PRICE Coach
else. His gratitude for baseball trainer Ken Wainwright is apparent when he talks about his full recovery from the surgery on his elbow.
"I'm living here because of my teammates, my family, my coaches encouraged me to be
He even praised the Athletics Department's tutoring system and its effectiveness for international
here," Hayakawa said. "If I don't have such god teammates or coaching staff or family and all the people I associate with in the athletic department, I probably wouldn't be here."
students. Besides moving to a new country, training under a new culture of baseball and learning another language. Hayakawa is a member of the All-Big 12 Academic first team.
"That is a miracle," Hayakawa said in a fit of laughter. "I don't know how I did that. I was so impressed."
Impressive is the progress Yo has made in a quick five years. He is the last of the guys who started with Price and Graves, after his closest friends Ritchie Price, Don Czyz and Matt Baty finished their collegiate careers last season.
The young man who, a few short years ago sat next to Czyz at restaurants and gestured the same order as his teammate because he didn't know enough English to speak for himself, will graduate next month with a degree in economics and four years on a Division I roster.
"He'll be one of these guys that 10 years from now, when I'm done here, he'll have a legacy," Price said. "Everybody loves that guy. He's always up off the bench congratulating you. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He is truly special."
Kansan senior sportswriter Alissa Bauer can be contacted at abauer@kansan.com.
Rained out at 'The K'
-Edited by Jyl Unruh
Photos by Sarah Leonard/KANSAN Above: Pouring rain on Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium forced the cancelation of the baseball game between Kansas and Missouri. The game will not be rescheduled.
Right: A young fans sits in rain covered seats during a rain delay Wednesday night at Kaufman Stadium. The baseball game between the Jayhawks and Tigers in Kansas City, Mo., was canceled.
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》 NASCAR
BY JENNA FRYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hendrick's philosophy finally catching on
After 23 years, he finally has everyone on board and HMS has been rewarded with the hottest start in its history.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As his NASCAR operation grew to four competitive cars, Rick Hendrick continuously preached his one-team philosophy — with mixed results.
His message sometimes was lost among egos, jealousy and an unwillingness to share. But the car owner remained convinced that Hendrick Motorsports would reap unlimited benefits if everyone subscribed to his plan.
Hendrick cars have won five of the first eight races this year, including all three events that used the NASCAR-designed Car of Tomorrow. Jeff Gordon is leading the Nextel Cup standings, defending champion Jimmie Johnson is fourth and Kyle Busch is sixth.
"This year more than any other year, we've got folks that are working together better, willing to share information better and make sure the cars are good for their teammates," said general manager Marshall Carlson. "There has been this sense of unity that has been building for some time, but I think we are starting to see the fruits of it now."
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Although Hendrick is routinely in the upper echelon of NASCAR, the organization has never been this dominant across the board. Only Casey Mears, in his first season with Hendrick, is struggling and the team has made getting Mears up to speed its top priority.
"The only thing he ever asks of everyone is that we all work together," said Carlson. "There are two things that he always says in management meetings, in employee luncheons, in all forms of his businesses. He says, 'You can't sink half a ship, all of us together are going to be stronger than one of us alone.'
Currently 35th in the standings and the only Hendrick driver without a win this season, Mears is adapting to a new team, a crew chief he was paired with the week before the season began and also learning how to drive a Chevrolet after four years of driving a Dodge.
But the HMS resources already have kicked in, and it shouldn't take long to get Mears on track under the philosophy that Hendrick preaches in auto racing and auto sales.
"And he says, 'No great organization will ever be brought down or torn down from the outside. Success starts and ends from the inside.' We've been very vigilant about getting all hands on deck with both of those ideas."
Sabres defeat Rangers
BY JOHN WAWROW ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Thomas Vanek and the Buffalo Sabres sure looked like the cream of the crop Wednesday night.
Vanek scored twice, sparking a three-goal second period, and Ryan Miller stopped 32 shots in a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series opener. Jason Pominville and Ales Kotalik also scored for a Buffalo team that played much better after struggling to eliminate the New York Islanders in five games in the first round.
Marcel Hossa and Brendan Shanahan scored third-period goals for the Rangers, who lost their first game this postseason after sweeping Southeast Division champion Atlanta. The Rangers went 1-for-5 in power-play chances, but failed to score during a 2-minute, two-man advantage early in the third period.
The Sabres were particularly motivated after Rangers coach Tom Renney said this week that top-seeded Buffalo wasn't the NHL's "cream of the crop" team.
The Sabres never allowed the Rangers to within a goal in the third, and Drew Stafford sealed the win with an empty-netter.
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