Maui sports pioneer Wally Yonamine passes away

Wally Yonamine, born and raised in Olowalu, died Monday night, according to friends and family. He was 85.

Yonamine may have been the greatest athlete ever to come from the Valley Isle. He started his high school career at Lahainaluna before transferring to Farrington on Oahu.

"He was one of the greatest," former Maui News sports editor Wayne Tanaka told me a few minutes ago. "I admired him very much from his days hen he was playing at Lahainaluna. And he went on to stardom in Honolulu, then professional baseball, football, and baseball in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants."

Yonamine's foundation is the reason that Maehara Stadium is in the rotation for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I state tournament, according to former HHSAA Executive Director Keith Amemiya told me this morning.

"If he is not the greatest athlete ever from Maui, I don't know who is," Amemiya said. "He is the reason that the baseball tournament is played on Maui every four years."

Yonamine faced racial tensions as a Japanese-American immediately after World War II when he played football for the San Francisco 49ers in 1947 — he also played professional baseball for the Salt Lake City Bees and San Francisco Bees — and he went to Japan in 1951 and starred for the Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons.

Yonamine hit .311, won three batting titles, was a seven-time all-star and a most valuable player in 1957 in his 12-season playing career in Japan. He spent 20 years as a coach and manager in Japan before being inducted to the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

According to the 49ers, Yonamine was the first Asian-American to play pro football. He was also the first American to play baseball in Japan in the post-World War II era. The Niners honor him with an annual award in his name.

Much, much more in Wednesday's paper after I talk to those who knew Yonamine well.