Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hal Keimi Interview
Narrator: Hal Keimi
Interviewers: Brian Niiya (primary), Emily Anderson (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: February 5, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-458-21

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BN: What kind of teacher were you? I mean, were you seen as kind of mean, hard, easy?

HK: I don't know, you'd have to ask...

BN: The students, I guess.

HK: ...the students, yeah. I don't know, I got by.

BN: Did you also, like, coach?

HK: Yeah, at South Gate Junior High, there was one time where they had, L.A. Unified District had like a tournament, it was called three-pitch softball where your team provides the pitcher for your own batters, but you only get three pitches to hit the ball and do something. So our school had a three-pitch team, and I ended up being the coach, and we ended up winning the city title. So that was interesting. More interesting was, back then it was, junior high was (grades) 7, 8, 9, so every player was a ninth grader except for one player who was an eighth grader, and that eighth grader was the best player on the team. And he is now the manager of the Chicago White Sox, Richard Renteria.

BN: He was a major league player, too.

HK: He was the eighth grader, and he was super.

BN: And did you coach also in the NAU or other Japanese American leagues?

HK: For the kids it was a youth league, Community Youth, CYC, so I coached the Evergreen Knights basketball and baseball.

BN: For a lot of years?

HK: Well, a few years, so I got them when they were midget bees, I think they were eight years old, so I went for, until they were about twelve or so, so that's about four or five years.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.