Monday was a special day for both Vancouver's Japanese community and its baseball fans.
Children from across the Lower Mainland brought their bats and gloves to Nanaimo Park in East Vancouver for the annual Asahi Legacy Games.
The all-day event showcased players from ages 8 to 15, plus a special "feature game" of alumni of the revived Asahi baseball program.
Named for the Vancouver Asahi -- a championship-winning Japanese-Canadian baseball team that played in Oppenheimer Park from 1914 until its players were sent to internment camps during the Second World War -- the new Asahi aims to keep the original team's legacy alive.
"The last surviving member, Kaye Kaminishi -- who is still alive today, he's 97 -- he wanted us to recreate the team," said John Wong, president of the Asahi Baseball Association. "We started with 14 players in 2014 and now we're … close to 200."
Wong said the original Asahi were known for being smaller in stature than many of their opponents, a fact that led them to play what they called "brain ball" -- a style of baseball that emphasized intelligent play, including bunting and stealing bases.
"They were a great team," Wong said. "[The legacy games are] about keeping the legacy alive and keeping the name of the Vancouver Asahi alive."
He said the organization's goal is to launch a men's team. Its youth program aims to support that goal, providing baseball instruction to children ages six to 15, who later join the Asahi alumni in the adult games.
"It's about creating a community, for us," Wong said. "It's not about age."
The original Asahi were inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 and the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. They have been featured in a Heritage Minute and on a Canadian postage stamp.
