Bubba Hoopii-Tuionetoa smiles after signing his contract with the Texas Rangers last month. -- Photo courtesy of SIIVA TUIONETOA

His life has always included baseball, but now Bubba Hoopii-Tuionetoa lives the game as a newly minted member of the Texas Rangers organization.

“I like it, I really like the fact that I’m here with them,” Hoopii-Tuionetoa said via phone from Surprise, Ariz., on Thursday evening. “I’m happy. Everybody’s happy that I’m still doing what everybody dreams of doing. So, it’s humbling, but I love it and I’m proud to be part of this organization.”

The 2018 Baldwin High School graduate was the consensus state player of the year, capping his career with the Bears by winning a second state title in three seasons on a team that finished ranked No. 8 in the nation by USA Today.

He was selected in the 16th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball draft by the Minnesota Twins, but after things didn’t work out with the Twins, he ended up at Pierce College in Puyallup, Wash., for the 2019 season.

In June, he was drafted again, this time by Texas in the 30th round. There was no hesitation about signing this time and a little more than a month later, he is a member of the Rangers team in the Rookie-level Arizona League.

“Honestly, it’s a big relief, being out here on the West Coast is a plus,” Hoopii-Tuionetoa said. “It’s just great to be part of this organization. Everything around it is good, it feels like home, the family feel. Everybody gets along, which makes it a lot more fun.”

The right-hander has not thrown his first professional pitch yet as he works through minor elbow issues. He has been told his first game action will come before the AZL season ends in August.

“Right now I’m in a strengthening program, so kind of like a rehabilitation for my elbow,” he said. “Throwing only a little bit here and there, that’s it. Just getting stronger.”

He wears a Modus chip device on his arm to monitor his physical status.

“It’s like a chip that you put into your sleeve and you wear it,” he said. “It keeps track of how much stress you put on your arm, how ready you are, and whatnot. It shows you how many throws you made. It’s crazy. The technology over here is advanced.”

From waking up to arriving back at his hotel, it is baseball for breakfast, lunch and dinner these days.

“Typical day? I get up at 10:30 (a.m.), do my things to get ready, got to be at the complex before 12,” he said. “We either do workouts in the gym — we either lift one day and then at 12 o’clock we condition. Then eat lunch, practice at around 3, 3:30 and from then on it’s baseball in and out. We shower, get ready for our games at 6. We don’t finish until 9:30, 10.

“Basically there all day, 12 hours.”

The temperatures routinely reach as high as 110 degrees.

“The days that are not hot, if you’re not going to pitch, you wear shorts and sit in the stands,” Hoopii-Tuionetoa said. “If you’re pitching, you put on the uniform and get in the bullpen or the dugout.”

He said he is getting stronger “every day” and can’t wait to pitch.

“I signed a little more than a month ago, went straight to Surprise, started working out and never stopped since,” he said. “They’ve been telling me I’ve been doing really well, so they don’t have an exact timeline, but they said I will pitch before the AZL season is over.

“I’m ready for it. I’ve been looking forward to pitching at the professional level all my life.”

Hoopii-Tuionetoa was a key member of Central East Maui Senior League All-Star teams that advanced to the World Series in 2016 and 2017. The fourth straight CEM team to make it that far begins play in Easley, S.C., today.

“It says a lot, just comes to show how much talent is on the island of Maui,” Hoopii-Tuionetoa said. “It’s good for me, I like seeing them be successful. Great to see that where I come from baseball never dies.”

As the latest professional from Maui County, Hoopii-Tuionetoa knows he has a responsibility to represent his birthplace.

“That’s everything to me,” he said. “Kids now instead of looking up to all the guys out of our generation like Kurt (Suzuki) — that’s who I looked up to at the time — now I kind of have that image. Everybody tries to get to this point and now that I’m here I can kind of give them a platform.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com