BASEBALL - Team player wins Japan trip

When 10-year-old Maanaki Tawhiwhirangi heard the news that he'd been hoping to hear, he took it calmly, handed the phone over to his father Chris and headed for his room.
Chris was a little baffled, he'd had a feeling that the woman on the phone had good news for Maanaki and was at a loss to understand why he was so subdued.
"When I got the phone back from him, the woman said to me `that's not the reaction I was looking for, it's Bernice from the World Baseball Federation and I just told Manaaki he's won a trip to Japan'."
As Chris took in the good news, any doubts that his son may have misunderstood the caller evaporated as his son let rip with a loud "yahoo" as he went down the hall towards his bedroom.
"He started celebrating the news then and it was hard to get him to stop after that," Chris laughed.
"I was excited and in the end I did go a bit crazy," Maanaki admitted. And why not?
Manaaki was just one of five Kiwi baseballers chosen to attend the World Baseball Expo in Japan, with all expenses paid. He joins one little league player from Canterbury and three from Auckland as the Kiwi ambassadors at the event that is held every two years.
"I don't really know anything about Japan," Maanaki said truthfully. "But I will learn plenty when I get there."
The Whangarei Intermediate student will have plenty of time to learn about the country he will visit at the end of July.
Maanaki will attend coaching sessions every morning and during the rest of the time the kids will be tourists, with organised trips to the Sumo wrestling and other attractions.
The five players' and chaperone's trips are entirely paid for by a wealthy baseball fan.
"There were a lot of reasons why they wanted Maanaki to go, he's a good player but I think it was his other attributes that got him selected. He showed leadership during the season and got on well with all the other kids, not just in his grade," Chris said.
Another Northland baseball player on the move in the off-season is Whangarei's Shae Currie, who becomes the first Northland player to be selected in the national little league team.
He will compete in the Australian State Championships in July. New Zealand enters a fairly competitive team every year.
Northland coach Aaron Moore has won a trip to Darwin in July to do a Baseball Confederation of Oceania training programme run by former American major league coach Ray Brown.