<Begin Segment 7>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: How about other sports? Do you recall other sports growing up?

FT: No, you know in Bailey Gatzert we didn't have team sports or anything like that. But when we went to Washington, (for) seventh and eighth grades (and) the school had team sports. So I played, Pete and I and some of the others, (...) were on the softball (...) and soccer teams, and we played (...) other schools. And yeah, so outside of school, we all went (...) Collins Playfield (which) had leagues that (...) played with other parks. (...) We were in the (...) 110 League(...), I don't know how they got the (110 class, your height, weight and age was averaged out), and said, "You're 120, you're 130," or whatever it is. And we played softball and soccer with other parks. And Collins Playfield teams, we had, it was not only the Niseis, it was the blacks, and Italian people, kids, the Jewish kids. It was mixed.

TI: And how did the Japanese get along with the Italians, the Jewish children?

FT: Oh, we got along real well. [Interruption] (Narr. note: We got along real well. Washington was in the Jewish area and we had lots of Jewish kids as friends. In the '80s, after I had returned and was walking down Yesler Way, I saw a black guy coming up towards me. As we passed, he said, "Hi, Shin." Surprised, I looked hard and saw it was a teammate at Washington -- Lester.)

TI: So how good were your teams from Collins Playfield? When you went to, you said you went to other communities to play.

FT: Oh, yeah, we were the champions mostly. The Niseis were really athletic and very flexible. And the other, like the Caucasian guys (were) bigger, but they were more clumsy. And we'd beat 'em all the time.

TI: And so you guys had the reputation of having good teams with Collins.

FT: Yeah, basketball, too. You know, I one time -- [coughs] pardon me -- one of the best Nisei basketball teams was the Hornets. They were very famous. It was all Niseis and they, I think they were from Collins Playfield. But the Hornets (played) other high school teams. They were very famous and (were featured on the sports page of) the P-I (written by) the guy that has that one block named after him?

TI: So Royal Brougham? Royal Brougham?

FT: (Yes).

TI: So it wasn't...

FT: He has a block by the Safeco Field named after him.

TI: So is that the Royal Brougham?

FT: (...) Royal Brougham. He wrote about them. Yeah, the Hornets, they were really good. And it was an all Nisei team. Oh, I think there was one Chinese guy that played. Yeah, Art Lui was the center for them and the (others were) Tom Kubota, Taft Toribara, Min Yamazaki, (a) Kurimura (and Pete Yoshitomi). They were really a good team. And they would play practice games with high school teams. They were very famous.

TI: So how about you? What sport did you like to play?

FT: Oh, I played everything. Just you know, the Courier Leagues. That was later, but before, we had neighborhood teams, like (those) around (...) downtown, J-town. (They were affiliated with) Taiyo group (...) teams around Twelfth (and) Fourteenth Avenues (were) Waseda teams. (...) And then they had the Lotus (...) Buddhist church teams (...). And we played against each other. It wasn't organized, but somehow always had a playfield (to play on).

TI: So these were kind of just, almost, it wasn't a league per se, it was just like different groups.

FT: There was no leagues then. And then later, the Japanese American Courier.

TI: But before the Courier League, so it wasn't organized. Did people have uniforms?

FT: No, we didn't have uniforms. We'd just say, "Hey, we'll play you guys at Dugdale Playfield," on such a day, you know. And that's how it went. It was all neighborhood teams. So when I lived up at Eighteenth and Charles, I played for the Marmots, which was (kids) from that area. And our coach at that time was Bob Hosakawa, he was a little older than us, so he was (our coach). And we would challenge the Taiyo teams from (...) J-town (...). And we'd practice on the street. Like football, we'd have (practice) on the street. And Tenth and Fir was (ideal for baseball practice.) (...) (Narr. note: Lids on each corner became bases in an empty lot, and left field was down Tenth Avenue, and right field was down Fir Street.)

TI: So just really simple, simple things.

FT: Yeah, little things like that.

TI: And so for equipment like balls and stuff...

FT: We have a core, or someone would wind string around it and make a ball.

TI: And for a bat, what would you use?

FT: Well, bat, we always had bats, I don't know why. And then in the winter, we played hockey on the street.

TI: So lots of activity.

FT: And we did a lot of skating. We'd skate all over.

TI: And these are these old metal skates that you would use?

FT: Yeah, we'd use them until those wheels all worn out. [Laughs]

TI: How far would you skate when you would think about it? Just in the neighborhood or would you skate outside?

FT: Yeah, actually, we skated to school. We used to skate from Tenth and Fir to Broadway and Pine for Broadway High School. We'd skate to school and skate back again.

TI: So that's, again, you're talking over a mile.

FT: Oh, yeah. A couple of miles easy.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.