And the newspaper clipping proves it

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Victor Ikeda was sharing a newspaper clipping extolling the virtues of the Minidoka War Relocation Center baseball team when an elderly gentleman in a navy blue leisure suit sidled by, his wife on his arm.

"Good movie," the man said to Ikeda after a screening of "American Pastime" in the St. Andrews Room at the Golden Nugget convention area.

"This is Rick Kumagai," Ikeda told me excitedly. "He's the one I wanted you to meet."

Rikio Kumagai is the one with the number 4 in the "Won" column and the zero under "Lost" in the clipping Ikeda was showing me. It was a recap of the 1943 Hunt semipro baseball team - the sanitized way to which the team was referred when it played ball during World War II outside the barbed-wire confines of the Minidoka internment camp about 20 miles from Hunt, Idaho.

Ikeda then showed the printed record of Kumagai's mound wizardry to his wife, who seemed to get a big kick out of it.

"All these years, I never believed him," she said with a hearty laugh.

I got a kick out of the clipping, too, but mostly because of the colorful style in which it was written.

"Hunt 7, Filer 1," began the first entry on the page. "Behind the masterful twirling of Nobi Sato, the semipros whipped the visiting Filer aggregation in their initial contest."

Today's pitchers don't twirl. They may throw "gas" or bring "heat." But they don't twirl.

"Hunt 23, Rupert 6: Rikio Kumagai relieved George Hayakawa in the second canto and went on to win."

"Hunt 8, Jerome 7: A last-inning rally enabled the all-stars to eke out a closely fought tussle at their pasture."

"Hunt 24, Nampa 2: Kumagai frustrated Nampa with a superlative exhibition of soup-boning."

"Hunt 12, Burley 4: Led by the willow-wielding of Koichi Suto and Takami, the all-stars copped their seventh straight tilt."

"Hunt 14, Hunt MP 1: Being neighbors meant nothing to the Nisei who trampled all over the hapless soldiers while Jos Ashara played Scotchman on the mound."

"Hunt 13, Burley 9: The all-stars brought the 1943 season to an end as Suto whang-doodled 5 hits in 5 attempts."

Soup-boning? Willow-wielding? Whang-doodled?

It must have been fun to be a sportswriter in 1943.

Provided, of course, you were on the press box side of the barbed wire.