sports CORRESPONDENT

Fun for the Federal Way all-star baseball team was had in a foreign land as it traveled all over Japan to see the sights and play ball June 25 to July 5.

Players came from area high schools for senior trips that were a lot farther in distance unless Tokyo, Japan is not that far.

That's exactly where one over a dozen high school ballplayers went for fun in the sun in a climate similar to ours. In fact, exactly where they went was a lush suburb of greenery and baseball diamonds well-kept, cut like the stones- Hachinohe.

That city name is a little off the Tokyo beaten path that all these young men ventured and Hachinohe- is the sister city of Federal Way.

"We got to go to a Tokyo Giants game, we all got to go down on the field," said Steve Murphy, Decatur's head baseball coach.

Tokyo was a big place, not just the ballpark and size of the stadium rivaling the biggest 100,000 seaters here in the U.S.A. Safeco, incidentally, seats about 46,000 at full capacity.

"Tokyo is a big place," said Murphy, who was a South Puget Sound League all-leaguer himself back in the 1980s for the Decatur Gators baseball team.

"It is the size of about eight Seattles," Murphy said.

Murphy was there, along with Eagles new head coach Danny Graham, and former Eagles coach Eric Fiedler. Fiedler just took a job coaching with the Enumclaw Hornets.

"We as coaches had a very good time," Murphy said. "Baseball was important but secondary to seeing that the kids saw the culture, learned some history, enjoyed the hospitality."

Players were able to stay two days, three nights with host families while in Hachinohe as set up through coordinated efforts of the city of Federal Way and that Japanese sister city of ours way over on the other side of the globe.

"We got to go to one of their national treasures, a lake, it rained the whole time we were there," said Murphy.

The landscape, according to Murphy, rivals that of Federal Way in a lot ot ways, with it's greenness but the culture is "so much different."

"They eat a lot of squid and seafood. They use their land amazingly well," said Murphy, saying there were not too many 'land for sale' signs either.

Japan is known for Teriyaki, too, and that was a good thing to have there.

"The best thing I ate was this Teriyaki beef, about as good of beef that I have ever had," said Murphy.

Was it raw like the sushi?

"No, it was cooked, just very good," he said.

What was very good was the chance for the kids to get to understand people different from themselves.

"It was good for them to get an opportunity to stay with host families and see how they live, to see how things are done a little differently," Murphy said.

Then there was that American pastime, baseball, that these boys played and coaches coached. It was tough competition to say the least.

"We lost the first game to Kosei, 2-1," said Murphy. "That team was very good, they are preparing for a national level tournament. They are considered a top 10 team in the country I think."

Baseball is a very high order there.

"There are baseball schools there, that kids go to learn education up to eighth, ninth grade and then take entrance exams and after that they go to a school to exclusively play baseball to become good enough to be professional," Murphy said.

Kosei was one of those teams one can guess.

So, with that very good team out of the way, even though it was a loss and Decatur pitcher Ross Humes suffered it, it was smooth sailing from there.

The next game Federal Way's all-star group could only a muster a 6-6 tie.

"They only play regular inning games and stop, they do not go into extra innings to decide a game," said Murphy.

So after kissing their sister, figuratively speaking, the next game was a tough one, a 2-0 loss for pitcher Jay Walkup.

"Jay pitched great, a complete game, we just could not get the bats going," said Murphy.

Obviously, Japan's pitchers could throw well, too.

"We saw a lot of pitchers with very good control of the off-speed pitches which is not the case in the SPSL all the time. That stuff confused a few of our hitters."

Finally came the fourth and final game of the tour through some of Japan's better high school and league club school of baseball teams and the confusion ended offensively. It was a resounding win, 11-0, as Federal Way high school pitcher Andrew Conklin threw a shutout. In that time was a home run bonanza too. Conklin, Mitch Jump of Federal Way and Jason Summers of TJ all went yard and Brad Reed of Decatur cashed in for a couple doubles.

But that baseball and everything else had to end some time and after that fourth game it was time to come home and it was good.

"We had a lot of fun with each other but 10 days was enough. Thee kids were ready to get home to see parents and friends and we were ready to see our loved ones too," said Murphy.

But it was something that Murphy will cherish as much as most of the 18-year old men.

"This was the first time I've traveled internationally," said Murphy. "It was a once in a lifetime experience. I'm very appreciative of all the parents did of time, efforts, to send us on such a wonderful trip."