Baseball has a deep and rich history.

I’m not talking about what’s going on in Major League Baseball, with the Dodgers advancing to meet the Yankees in the World Series. We Giants fans don’t care.

I’m talking about Hawaii high school baseball.

This one involves a player who was humble then and has lived a humble life since, with children and grandchildren, immersing himself in everyday life in Hawaii until retiring from the banking industry after 40-plus years.

He’s a player you couldn’t tell the story of Hawaii high school baseball without. He would take up a whole segment. In fact, there is a book written about his achievement.

I’m talking about Glenn Goya.

If you’re not familiar, he was the Punahou left-hander who tossed a perfect game against Saint Louis in the state championship on April 29, 1972.

That might be the only nine-inning perfect game ever pitched in a state high school championship — anywhere. (There recently was a five-inning perfect game in a championship in Michigan.)

Letting history-makers tell their story can be a joy, especially if they become an everyday person and a stand-up citizen. One thing — like my earlier columns on Gerald Ako and Derek Tatsuno — athletes always remember their milestone moments in high school.

Here’s Goya’s:

“All I wanted to do was win the game,” Goya, 70, said in a recent interview. “(To) throw a no-hitter is unbelievable, but a perfect game, I can’t describe that. It wouldn’t happen without the support of everyone — coaches, my teammates, the Punahou baseball community.”

Punahou’s coach at the time, Doug Bennett, now 81, said: “Playing under the lights in the old (Honolulu) stadium, nobody ever thought about or anticipated it would be a no-hitter, let alone a perfect game.”

“Anything like that. That wasn’t on anybody’s mind.”

Goya, then 5 feet 10 and 175 pounds, recalled Saint Louis “was the last team I wanted to face.”

Saint Louis, he said, was called the “Murderers’ Row,” with Eric Texidor, Wade Okamura, Richard Silva, Danny Phillips, Vernon Yoro and eventual quarterback guru Vince Passas.

But Goya faced the Crusaders twice during the regular season and beat them twice — “close games, both times.”

“I know how great of a team they had. I got to face them a third time? I don’t know if this is doomsday for me now, because they know exactly how I pitch.”

In fact, if not for Bennett overruling other coaches, Goya might have pitched in the semifinal against Kaimuki instead of the final.

Goya recalls all the great plays by his defense, starting with Saint Louis’ first batter, Texidor.

“He hit a shot to left field,” Goya said. “Luckily the wind was blowing and held the ball back so our left fielder (Jay Higgins) could get under it and make a great catch.

“That’s how the game started. Every inning, it seemed like they hit the ball well. But somebody made a great play.

“There were several I remember — Alan Yamashiro at shortstop, Benet Ekhammer at first base, Earl Nakaya was the center fielder, he made a great over-the-shoulder catch by the fence. Mosi Tatupu made a diving catch in right field in the late innings (sixth inning).”

But probably the play of the game was made by Goya himself, who called it “the greatest play of my life.”

It occurred in the ninth inning, with Punahou ahead 5-0. Yoro led off and bunted with two strikes.

“Surprised the heck out of everybody,” Goya said. “(Third baseman) Kerry Komatsubara told me he was playing back, hugging the line, to block any potential double. He was back. He said he had no chance to get the bunt, so it was me. That’s it..

“Perfect bunt down third-base line. Luckily, the Honolulu Stadium grass was kinda long, kinda thick. I was able to field it basically as it was dying, … (but) I had to do a 180 and threw it kinda blindly to first base and luckily I made a good throw to first.”

“Vernon Yoro made a head-first slide, nobody disputed the call, but it was pretty close.”

Goya’s command throughout the night was exceptional. He said he was told that he threw 19 first-pitch strikes.

“It was one of those nights where everything went well, control-wise,” he said. “I threw 50% fastballs and 50% curveballs, but I kind of mixed up speeds with my curveball, like a changeup curve and a regular curve.”

Goya credited his catcher, Mike Moss, who called all the pitches.

“He had perfect targets,” Goya said of Moss. “He knew exactly where to pitch everyone. We kind of went over each batter during the game. He said just focus in on his target, and luckily I was able to be a zone that night and just threw exactly where he had his catcher’s mitt.

“We were really in sync that night.”

After Goya struck out the final batter — his eighth strikeout of the night — a wild celebration ensued.

“When the game ended, everybody went nuts and charged the mound,” Bennett said. “I still have a scar on my ear because Earl Nakaya, our center fielder, he got in a little late and I was somewhere in the pile and he jumped on and his cleat cut my ear. It was wild and it was crazy. And it was very crazy.”

The reserved Goya didn’t toss his glove into the air. “I let other people do that. I was just stunned. I couldn’t believe what had happened. A perfect game. It was hard to believe what had happened. Even until this day, when people mention it, I still find it hard to believe that it had happened.”

Goya was part of another watershed moment in Hawaii prep baseball.

He was the ILH Player of the Year during his perfect season in 1972 and he earned the honor again his senior year in 1973.

He again started in the state championship in 1973 in another iconic game against Aiea when the baseball world would be introduced to Tatsuno, a sensational freshman.

He sensed the tide turned in the first inning when Punahou loaded the bases and Aiea changed pitchers.

“(George) Anzai, he brought in a freshman nobody knew about. It turned out to be Derek Tatsuno. That was the end of our rally.”

Aiea would go on to win its first state baseball title, with Tatsuno getting the win, Ako getting the save. Goya pitched a complete game in defeat.

Goya’s career continued after high school at Colorado State,, but not as a pitcher.

“I was recruited to pitch,” he said. “When I got there, the altitude affected me. It seemed like in the high altitude, the curveball wouldn’t break like at sea level. That was my bread-and-butter pitch, so it wasn’t effective there as here. Luckily, I could play first base and be an everyday player.”

He played four years at Colorado State — a school he was aligned with since his sophomore year at Punahou — and won the Division I batting title at .485 his senior year in 1977.

He was drafted by the San Francisco organization and played two seasons of minor league baseball, where he played against Joey DeSa and was a teammate of Bob Brenly.

In his third year, he was assigned back to Fresno. It was then that Goya “thought my future wasn’t going to be in professional baseball and I decided to hang it up and decided to get a regular job.”

With a degree in business management, Goya got into banking, finally ending up at First Hawaiian Bank, where he was a senior vice president and branch manager before retiring three years ago.

Members of that 1972 Punahou team actually got together on the 50th anniversary of that magical night.

The team met on April 29, 2022 at the pavilion located at the stadium park, where Bennett presented everyone with a book, “Going Together: The Story of Punahou Baseball’s Perfect 1972 Season.”

“In my sports career, (this was) definitely No. 1,” Goya said. “For one particular game, yes, this was the greatest thing that happened to me.”

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Reach Curtis Murayama at cmurayama@staradvertiser.com.