I don’t want to jinx anything, but it appears that the pandemic is nearly over.

Everyone will remember their own moment when the COVID-19 scourge ended, whether it be sitting in traffic again or being able to pack into a bar to watch Tyson Fury knock out Dillian Whyte to cement his spot among boxing’s all-time great heavyweights. But for me, the surest sign of normalcy will come on May 4 when high school athletes assemble on Maui for the Wally Yonamine Foundation State Baseball Championships.

The last two events were canceled by the pandemic, a long, dark slog since Punahou’s Tyler Shimabukuro forced Jayton Pang of Mililani to ground the ball back to him at Iron Maehara Stadium and clinch the 2019 title for the Buffanblu.

You can have your state football tournaments or UH football home openers, but give me the state baseball party. It is mostly because I played baseball in my formative years and it was a lot more fun than my time spent as a football tackling dummy and basketball bench-warmer.

There are other prep events that predate statehood like boys basketball, but prep baseball holds a special place in my heart as a show that never disappoints.

Football is king in the islands, but that tournament can’t compare to what the local nines put on the field. In football you know that you can skip ahead to ILH and OIA champions in the main event. The Division I state boys basketball championship has resided on Oahu for more than two decades.

The nature of baseball makes such prognostication impossible.

Every team in the tournament has a chance to win it all, something it shares with boys soccer and nothing else. Each island except Kauai has claimed the Cartwright Cup in the last eight years and Kauai took the Division II trophy as recently as 2017. Ken Nakayama and tiny Molokai created a team in 1999 and 2000 that still stands as one of the best Hawaii has ever seen.

Even when dynasties do pop up, like Punahou’s incredible run of titles from 2004-2010, it never comes easy. Two of those titles came on 1-run ballgames in the championship and the Buffanblu won with a seeded berth as ILH champion only three times in their seven state title years. I consider that run by Eric Kadooka among the most incredible records the sports world has ever seen, right up there with Joe Dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Barry Bonds’ 120 intentional walks in 2004 and the Aiea girls winning the state wrestling tournament in 2012 with just eight wrestlers. This year’s state baseball champions would have to win every year from now until 2028 to match Kadooka’s crew. That is not going to happen.

Going by run differential per inning, Punahou’s 2010 state title team stands as the most dominant, followed by 1979 Radford, 1988 Kamehameha, 1975 ‘Iolani and 1970 Kalani. ‘Iolani’s 1971 and 1983 squads had the toughest roads, outscoring opponents by only six runs over three games.

The tournament is even more unpredictable now with pitch count rules, making the last guy in the lineup that much more important. You won’t see another Glenn Oura, Derek Tatsuno or Ian Kahaloa these days but that makes it even better.

Oura was the ironman of the dark ages for Baldwin, pitching 501⁄3 of Baldwin’s 54 innings to win the 1959 and 1960 tournaments, leading to the first pitching limit rule. Kahaloa’s 141-pitch effort in Campbell’s 2015 semifinal win over Kamehameha had a part in the latest adjustment.

Even with the abundance of baseball talent in the islands — if you put my 1987 Frontier League champion General Brown Lions of frigid Northern New York in today’s ILH we would struggle to win a single game — the most talented team doesn’t always win the HHSAA tournament. Even big league braddahs Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Kurt Suzuki and Kolten Wong walked off the field at the state tournament a loser more times (9) than they won (8). That’s baseball, a game in which every moment matters.

There is no telling what is going to happen at Iron Maehara Stadium when the calendar turns to May, but if you are one of the lucky ones to be in attendance please take a moment to take it all in. We are back to normal.