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Otani remembered fondly for his dedication to baseball

Glenn Otani (middle with hat) was part of the Maui volunteer scoring crew at Maehara Stadium for the Wally Yonamine State Baseball Tournament in May 2019. He was joined by (from left, standing) Howard Nakasone, Kyle Galdeira, John Eno and Neal Fujiwara. Sitting in the front row are Masayo Sutton (left) and Gail Juan. — Screenshot courtesy of OC16

Glenn Otani seemingly lived his entire life for Maui baseball at all levels.

For the last quarter century, he was a fixture at nearly every organized baseball game on the island, leading his crew in the volunteer side of the Maehara Stadium most notably as scorekeeper for the Maui Interscholastic League.

Otani died July 30. He was 68.

“It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of Mr. Glenn Otani, a longtime MIL baseball volunteer, official and scorekeeper,” MIL baseball coordinator and Baldwin High School Wade Hondo said in a prepared statement to The Maui News. “At the same time it is with much love and aloha that we celebrate his life and his impact on our program and our community.”

Otani was born and raised in Kula and graduated from Maui High in 1969. In 1980 he was one of the original players for the Kula Farmers softball team.

Otani was a coach and manager of West Maui Little League teams in Kula. Soon after his time on the field was finished, he stayed on with the Little League programs as a scorekeeper and official.

Since 1995, he had been the Assistant District Administrator and official scorekeeper for Hawaii State District III (Maui County) games. He helped with Maui AJA since 2008 and the Pono baseball tournament since its inception.

He had been the official scorekeeper of the Maui High preseason tournament for the last 35 years and the Baldwin pre-season tournament for the last 30 years.

Otani started as a MIL official scorekeeper in 2000 and since then had done the books for almost every high school preseason, regular season or MIL tournament game. He had also been the scorekeeper at all the HHSAA state tournament games held in Maehara Stadium since then.

Otani always showed up early to make sure all of the essential preparations were done — he always had enough M&Ms with him for everyone around.

“As a person, Glenn was honest, congenial and unbelievably generous with his time and energy. He was humble, dedicated and loved baseball,” Hondo wrote. “He enjoyed being around those that shared that same passion for the game and its many opportunities it gave all our kids in the MIL. In the scorebox, he surrounded himself with a team of the same type of wonderful people.”

Masayo Sutton was one of those team members, often sitting next to Otani for 12-hour days in tournament play. Sutton was interested in scorekeeping when her son Sammy Sutton was coming up through youth baseball — he was later a standout for Maui High.

“I met Glenn when Sammy was 10 years old,” Masayo Sutton said. “I knew the basics of scorekeeping, but he’s the one that really taught me how. I learned a lot from him.”

Masayo Sutton went on to become the official scorekeeper for the Na Koa Ikaika independent professional baseball team; she will never forget Otani.

“His motto is ‘for the kids,’ “ Sutton said.

Retired Baldwin AD Kahai Shishido worked with Otani as the MIL baseball coordinator for many years.

“Glenn has been involved with baseball on Maui for several decades,” Shishido said. “He has served in just about every capacity from coach to board member to scorekeeper. He always came well prepared, with a positive attitude and a big smile. … He was a very giving man and will be dearly missed.”

Joe Kanahuna, who helps maintain the field at Maehara Stadium, knew Otani since they were children. They worked together for most of their lives and were classmates at Maui High.

“We go back to kindergarten days,” Kanahuna said. “He was a person that everybody got along with. Basically, he was a baseball guy. He loved his baseball. He loved to be the statistician — that’s the guy, that’s who he was.”

Kanahuna will miss his lifelong friend.

“He was positive, he was witty, supportive, trusting, knowledgable, respectful, joyous,” Kanahuna said. “He was a big-hearted person, very big-hearted, very lovable. He was just a great guy every time you saw him.”

Former Molokai High head coach and current Baldwin assistant Eddie Espiritu also worked closely with Otani at all levels of baseball.

“The first time I met him was in the early ’80s when he brought Kula Farmers softball to our softball tournament on Molokai,” Espiritu said. “He took that team to the Hana Mountainball Tournament nearly every year, from the ’80s to just recently.”

Espiritu remembers Otani stepping up to become the MIL scorekeeper when Shishido recognized a need more than two decades ago.

“Baseball-wise, he was always giving,” Espiritu said. “I remember when years ago we were going to Molokai for a 9-10-year-old tournament. He was going to stay at my house, but he said ‘You have got to take me up on the boat because I’m going to bring boxes.’ What he did was really amazing — he had Upcountry kids donate things from home. He took it there and he donated it all to the Salvation Army.

“It was things like that that really stand out about Glenn.”

Otani is survived by his children Dawn (Alfredo) Hernandez, Russell and Kraig (Heather); grandchildren Brendan, Jaeden, Kaitlyn, Kaia and Kensie; father Yukio; and sisters Sharon (Roy) Tanaka and Diane (Harvey) Owara.

Services are pending. Condolences can be sent to the Otani Family at P.O. Box 328 Kula, HI 96790.

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