PORT ANGELES — Members of the Port Angeles Lefties certainly come from far and wide, especially this season, which has a team with an international flavor.
This year’s team has a number of players born and raised in Japan, Korea or Australia — Takuma Sato, Ryoma Imai, Jumhyuk Kwon and Kosei Suzuki.
But none of them have come from anywhere quite as isolated as Spencer Dickinson.
Dickinson hails from the tiny island of Saipan in middle of the Pacific Ocean in the Northern Mariana Islands. It’s 5.6 miles wide and 12 miles long, slightly bigger than nearby San Juan Island.
Saipan is known to most Americans as the site of a famous World War II battle between Japan and the United States. It’s actually an American commonwealth and all residents of Saipan are American citizens, very similar to Puerto Rico. It is fairly close to the more well-known island of Guam, about 130 miles to the southwest. It’s about 3,700 miles west of Hawaii, 1,500 miles south of Japan and 1,600 miles east of the Philippines.
You simply can’t get much more isolated than that.
About 43,000 people live on Saipan. Being an isolated and close-knit community, Dickinson said the people of Saipan are “super nice [and] respect is huge in our culture.”
And yes, it has baseball. Remember, it’s part of America. Dickinson played Little League and youth baseball on Saipan, but his island high school didn’t offer baseball and he had to move to Rancho Mirage, Calif., to continue his baseball career. He just finished his junior year at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla., where he is majoring in physiology.
Even though the countryside in Shawnee couldn’t be much different from Saipan, he loves it there.
“I love my teammates, I love the coaches. I love the area,” he said, adding, “The tornadoes scare me.”
Productive at the plate
Dickinson had an absolutely monster season this spring for Oklahoma Baptist, which plays at the NCAA Div. II level. He hit .316 with 10 home runs and 48 RBIs in 51 games this season for the Bison.
He was named to the honorable mention team of the Great American Conference. He was a first-team all conference and Gold Glove winner in junior college for the College of the Desert in California, where he hit a spectacular .451 with 17 doubles, eight home runs and 55 RBIs.
He’s been all over the world to play baseball, from the Northern Mariana Islands to the hot deserts of Southern California to the plains of Oklahoma. Now, he’s in the mountains and forests of the cool, wet Pacific Northwest.
Dickinson said he feels very much at home in Port Angeles.
“The forests here remind me of home, but it is a little different. Our forests are all jungles,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson plays first base and third base. He’s definitely got power. He’s hit three home runs for the Lefties, one early in the season on the road against Wenatchee. He got his second home run in front of the home crowd at Civic Field on Sunday against Kelowna and then another one at home Tuesday night against the Dudes.
“That felt good, that’s one of the best feelings playing the game,” he said.
He’s also enjoyed his tenure with the Lefties and West Coast League. “It’s pretty good competition [and] I’m meeting people from all over the places — Japan, Australia. We all vibe. It’s good chemistry.”
He’s also enjoyed the experience of play with and against some of the top college talent in the country in the West Coast League and seeing how he stacks up.
“This is what I came here for. I’m excited to be here,” he said.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
