Earlier this week, the two Hawaii teams in the Pacific Association announced that they will suspend operations for the 2014 season. The owner of both teams, Bob Young, said that the teams may be part of a new Hawaii and Pacific Rim combined independent league for 2015, but no information on that has yet to emerge.
Here are the articles of interest:
- http://westhawaiitoday.com/sports/local-sports/hawaii-stars-baseball-team-suspended
- http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/583433/Na-Koa-won-t-play-in-2014.html?nav=11
In the first article, it is stated that the reason is the Northern California teams won’t travel to Hawaii due to the costs involved and sponsorship/financing to cover those costs never materialized. Young appeared to be optimistic about a Hawaii-based league in the future, but for now there is nothing to confirm.
At the time of this post (morning of March 19) there were no announcements made of the suspension from the Pacific Association on the league’s website:
Nothing yet exists on the Facebook page for either the Na Koa Ikaika Maui (Maui Strong Warriors) Facebook page:
Only the Hawaii Stars Facebook page (here) has a mention of the operations suspension and no longer being in the Pacific Association. The proposed 2015 league may be called the Hawaii Professional Baseball League, but that is still to be determined – if any league gets formed at all. Should something happen then it will be posted on this site.
Should this be the end of the Hawaii pro teams then it marks a 5-year experiment which has had significant problems from the outset. Maui’s problems over 5 seasons (2010-2104) have had their basis in instability:
- different leagues (Golden, North American and Pacific Association)
- different owners (originally owned by XNE and Michael Cummings who later attempted to found the American West Baseball League)
- multiple general managers
- multiple field managers
The teams’ respective websites (Maui and Hawaii) are no longer posting any content.
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You would think after having all off season to work on it, plus a few years even before that, that they could come up with two more teams to at least make a Hawaiian division, if not a league. Why is there not a team in Honolulu by now. Maybe even two! Certainly the colleges are not the only draw there. Crazy. What they don’t like baseball there anymore? Aloha!