Japanese ball player Munenori Kawasaki gives inspired post-game interview

I was nervous that this YouTube clip of a post-game interview with shortstop Munenori Kawasaki would be just an opportunity to make fun of the onetime Japanese baseball star, but I didn’t need to worry. His likable enthusiasm came through in spite of his struggles with English, and his team’s appreciation for the player came through loud and clear when one player stepped aside to allow him to be interviewed, and two others doused him as if they’d just won the World Series.

It wasn’t the championship: Kawasaki had just helped his Toronto Blue Jays win a game in the 9th inning against the Baltimore Orioles by hitting a walk-off double. Although (or maybe because) he had started the season in the Blue Jays’ minor league club (he had been released after one season with the Seattle Mariners).

I hope his Major League career continues to be as bright and happy as this day.
Continue reading

Go, Red Sox! Go, Daisuke! Go, Daigo!

A friend of mine just got some nice news to finish out the year. Daigo Fujiwara is a Japanese-born journalist, graphic artist, Web dude and baseball fanatic who now lives in Boston and works for the Boston Globe and Boston.com as a graphic artist.

Yesterday, Boston.com announced that it had cut a content partnership with “an established Japanese baseball site” called Go-RedSox.com. It turns out the man behind that Japanese language Web site for the Sox is none other than Daigo Fujiwara. Continue reading