Hawaii Baseball ­ Hank Oana

By Mike Bridgewater

Handsome Henry Oana, the Hawaiian Prince, spent the first thirteen seasons of his twenty-three year professional career as an outfielder/first-baseman, and proved himself a hunka-hunka burning bat in the Pacific Coast League. As related in the PCL history by Bill O'Neal, his timber lines for the 1931 San Francisco Seals and 1933 Portland Beavers ran .345 (23 HR & 161 RBI) and .332 (29 HR & 163 RBI). During the decade Oana also took turns on the mound, however, two of his best showings occurred in the Texas League.

For the 1942 Ft. Worth Cats, the island import won sixteen and lost five, with a winning percentage just a shade behind ex-White Sox and (1.20) ERA champ Silent John Whitehead, .762 to .769. After gaining his three major league wins in ten relief calls for the 1943 Detroit Tigers (hitting .385 in 26 ABs) and making his final big show appearance for the 145 championship Tigers, he was moved to Dallas, which became a Tiger farm club in 1946.

Described by Dallas Morning-News sports editor George White as one of "the fellows who pitch at least 50 per cent with their heads," Oana relied on pitch placement and a superb infield to have an outstanding season, despite being ridiculed by his former Ft. Worth team as being one of the Rebel staff's "worn out old men."

The thirty-eight year-old had sufficient wear left in his right arm to post a 3-2 record against the first finishing Cats, including an 8-2 Dallas home-opening win and a July 4th ten-inning, two-hit shutout. Voted the Texas League Pitcher of the Year, he led the league in innings pitched, 284 (72 walks and 123 strikeouts), and wins, 24 (against 10 losses), and was the only Dallas batter with 100+ ABs to hit above three-hundred.

His sparkling year continued into the post-season, as the Rebels, placing second, ten games south of their local feline rivals, swept through the Shaughnessy Playoffs and Dixie Series, winning twelve of thirteen games and claiming the first Dixie title for Dallas since 1926.

Oana won two games in the playoff's opening round vs. San Antonio, which had the Rebs in fifteen of twenty-two regular season matches. His five-hit, four-zip whitewash over future Tiger Ned Sarver completed the sweep of the Missions, bringing on favored Ft. Worth for the playoff final. With Dallas holding a 2-1 game advantage, Oana started Game Four, and though shaky, giving up an uncharacteristic six walks and a prodigious home run (a "370 foot wallop" off the bat of twenty year old Eddie "Duke" Snider, noted by George White as only "the third Texas Leaguer to hit fairly over" Rebel Park's right-field fence), he scattered five hits for a 6-2 win. Dallas disposed of a shocked Ft. Worth in Game Five, but had to wait to see whether they'd open the Dixie Series at Memphis or Atlanta. The hope was for the former, as Oana didn't fare well against left-handed batting, which was the strength of manager Kiki Cuyler's Crackers (led by 1950 American League batting champ Billy Goodman), especially at their home Ponce De Leon Park, with its short, 321 foot right-field porch.

Atlanta did win the Southern League playoff, but Hawaiian Hank beat the prevailing wisdom in the first game of the series, struggling through a ten-hitter and striking out Cracker outfielder Lloyd Gearhart on three pitches with the bases loaded in the ninth to secure a 13-3 decision. He didn't last beyond the third inning of Game Four's home start, allowing three runs on six hits, but the Rebels, whose 81 home runs more than doubled the total of any other 1946 Texas League club, unleashed a three home run barrage, using a six-run third to finish the broom job on the Crackers, 9-7.

Oana's reward for his total of 28 1946 wins, as reported by George White, was "a very attractive proposition to play this winter with the Aquadillo club in a winter league in Puerto Rico," but, as is said, that's another tale.