At 36 years old, Baldwin High School graduate Kurt Suzuki is playing in his first World Series. AP file photo
Kurt Suzuki has always worked extremely hard to cement his baseball legacy, but his arrival in the sport’s promised land in Tuesday’s Game 1 of the World Series was perhaps the defining chapter in his memoir.
It was classic Kurt in the Washington Nationals’ 5-4 victory over the favored Houston Astros: nearly beat out a grounder to shortstop in the second inning, walked and scored the go-ahead run in the fifth.
He started this postseason 0-for-18, getting a hit in Game 3 of the Nats’ NLCS sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. He is now 1-for-23 this postseason, but his offense is not why the 2001 Baldwin High School graduate is there.
“I was kind of joking with everybody and seeing how long I could go this whole postseason, how long we could win without me getting a hit,” he said with a laugh last week. “We went pretty far.”
The reason Suzuki started the World Series opener as a 36-year-old catcher? He has handled the Washington Nationals’ pitching to near perfection.
“I think you get to this point in the season, obviously the postseason where as a catcher you’ve got a long grind, your body’s tired, but a lot of mental preparation is spent game-planning for the pitchers,” Suzuki said. “Ultimately pitching and defense, ultimately I believe, helps you win championships. … Not getting hits kind of crushes me, but at the same time if we’re winning and I’m helping these pitchers, guiding these pitchers through the game and helping us win, that’s all that matters. Winning trumps everything at this point.”
He already has made a solid case that he may be the best baseball player ever to hail from the 50th state. He has more major league hits, home runs, RBIs, doubles, plate appearances and at-bats than anyone else who was ever born here.
If Suzuki plays the final year of his current contract next season, which would be his 14th, and stays healthy, he will most likely pass Mike Lum for most MLB games played by a Hawaii-born player — Suzuki currently has 1,479, which is 38 fewer than Lum had in 15 seasons ending in 1981.
Future Hall of Fame candidates Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg swear by Suzuki. Anibal Sanchez said his decision to sign with the Nationals was based largely on Suzuki being there.
But there is so much more to Suzuki’s lasting legacy on Maui and at Baldwin. The batting cage and baseball facility above the school in Wailuku were largely, but quietly, funded by Suzuki’s efforts.
“We’re blessed to have that kind of facility and without the support of Kurt, it would not be possible,” current Baldwin head coach Craig Okita said Tuesday. “It’s a great facility and it probably is one of the best in the state, if not the best in the state.”
Okita said his current players know all about Suzuki, as do other Maui youth players. Okita coached a Maui team that included players from Baldwin, Kamehameha Maui and Maui High to the Senior League world championship in August, and he annually helps with the Kurt Suzuki Foundation Clinic in January.
“The one thing that I think stands out the most is how humble and how much of a hard worker he is,” Okita said. “Given this opportunity at Baldwin, I’m hoping our kids turn out like him, use him as a role model.”
Shane Dudoit, the preceding Baldwin coach who guided the Bears to the 2018 state title, said he remembers Suzuki as a Baldwin senior when he hit .160 during Maui Interscholastic League play in the teachers-strike-shortened season of 2001.
Suzuki went on to become the Johnny Bench Award winner as the nation’s best catcher for NCAA champion Cal State Fullerton in 2004 — he started his career there as a walk-on, but was selected in the second round of the 2004 MLB draft by the Oakland A’s.
Dudoit is currently a scout for the Texas Rangers.
“I think that Kurt is a classic example of someone that works his butt off to get where he is,” Dudoit said. “I mean, from not being recruited or offered a scholarship at Cal State Fullerton, not being even considered as a draft pick out of Maui when he was about to graduate. Going to Cal State Fullerton, pushing through, and school-wise as well, to remain eligible, to remain working out and performing at a high level in baseball as well as in school. You know, getting to the College World Series, winning the College World Series, becoming the Johnny Bench Award winner, the best catcher in the nation. And then getting drafted in the second round after the Oakland A’s took Landon Powell, another catcher, in the first round.
“Fighting his way through it and Landon Powell is not even in baseball anymore. If there’s anything that Kurt can offer and if there’s anything to look up to, it’s been hard work.”
Maui’s recent overwhelming success in youth baseball is always being watched by Suzuki.
“Just kind of me trying to be that role model for these kids, I think it’s very important,” Suzuki said. “I think if you have dreams obviously you work as hard as you can to follow those dreams, you never give up, and to hopefully be a role model for these kids — not just on the field performing, but off the field and doing stuff for your community, being a good person, being a good friend, things like that, it’s very special to me. Obviously I take that to my heart.”
He couldn’t let the opportunity go by to give thanks to the folks who helped him along the way.
“I have a lot of people along the way that have helped me,” Suzuki said. “Coaches, obviously, coming up through Little League and (former Baldwin coaches) Coach (Jon) Viela and Coach (Kahai) Shishido and all my high school coaches that have been there and taught me certain aspects of the game of baseball. It’s pretty cool.”
The support from his home state has been overwhelming.
“Oh man, it’s been crazy,” Suzuki said last week. “I think a couple of the days, it’s been like 100 text messages. I’m trying to get them all back, but it’s kind of hard to get them all back quickly with the kids here and all that, but it’s been so, so cool to hear from all the people, especially from Hawaii that have been following, that are supporting you.
“Obviously they’re not here present, but coming from Maui, dreams like this, it’s crazy to have all the support. I think for me that’s the biggest thing. It’s all cool going to the World Series and making the World Series and stuff like that, but I think the coolest thing is having all the support from all the friends and family and people in Hawaii and Maui especially supporting you and cheering you on from Maui — it doesn’t get better than that, man. It’s a very humbling experience.”
He has a simple goal down the line as he lives his own lifelong dream.
“Hopefully one day I can be in those shoes and help some of these young kids reach their dreams,” Suzuki said. “And, you know, watch them when I’m older play in the World Series — that’d be awesome.”
Suzuki recently talked to lifelong friends Kimo and Tyson Higa, who were teammates at Baldwin and now are both coaches for the Bears.
“We were just saying this is what I worked my whole life for, to get to this point,” Suzuki said. “I’ve had so much help along the way with the coaches, the friends, the support from family and friends, from people from Hawaii, and to get to this point where it’s the first time in my career to play in the World Series, this is unforgettable.”
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.
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