Cultures dig home base

A friendly meeting of cultures takes place this afternoon — not across a desk, or at an embassy or even City Hall, but right across home plate. Admission is free.

The U.S.A. All-Star fastpitch softball team will face the formidable pro team of Japanese auto parts supplier Denso at 4:30 p.m. today at the Central Park Sports Complex. Then both teams will give a free softball clinic to kids who show up. As luck would have it, the Denso team trains in Anjo, Japan — Huntington Beach’s sister city.

It is pure, incredible coincidence that the Japanese team practices in Anjo, said Tom Adams, founder of Women’s Major League Softball.

“It was really by accident that it happened,” he said. “We planned it for Huntington Beach for a different reason, because it’s a very good community and it supports things like this. You talk about luck; there it is, right there.”

Mayor Gil Coerper, who plans to throw out the first pitch, is marveling at his own coincidence — that Adams came to him almost immediately after the mayor returned from a goodwill trip to Anjo.

“That’s the reason I’m so excited about it,” he said. “It’s ironic. I saw the baseball stadium when I was in Anjo, and all of a sudden they come up with this concept of having them come here.”

Planning for the game started 2 1/2 months ago. While trying to put together a world cup for women’s softball now that it is being phased out of the Olympics, his organization learned that the Denso team had free time in Southern California before it flies to the Canada Cup. The event took off from there, he said.

“This thing just snowballed on me,” he said. “We had some help from wonderful people. I just have to mention it to them, and they just can’t do enough.”

Mayumi Murakami, international operations vice president for Women’s Major League Softball, said the most interesting part for Americans may be their chance to see how Japanese players approach the game. Players will bow to each other in a line and exchange gifts before play, but there are more substantive differences. Japanese players warm up like no other athletes in the world, she added.

“It’s like a dance,” she said. “Even American coaches who know the Japanese style of warming up say, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

Kids who take an interest can learn the technique at the postgame clinic, she added.

The game won’t be the only festivities taking place on the field. Huntington Beach High School student Rukka Suzuki will sing the Japanese national anthem, while classmate Brittany Gerardi will sing the Star-Spangled Banner, Coerper said. The 315th Psychological Operations Company, just back from Afghanistan, will hold a flag ceremony. And while the company is based in Upland, its Sgt. Justin Jones is from Huntington Beach.

This is the first softball diplomacy for the city. Next year, Huntington Beach’s other sister city, Waitakere, New Zealand, will send its own team for an exhibition game, Coerper said.

Huntington Beach is especially good for this game, Adams said. Southern California is a major hotbed for softball, enough that he plans to start a pro league in this region.

“Ninety percent of the players come from Southern California,” he said. “California is loaded; it has the weather and there’s so much talent out there.”