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01/31/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Valdes Seeking Revenge on Hanshin; Matsui Gives Miyazaki Five"
Valdes Looking for Some Payback
Dragons reliever Marc Valdes reported today and barely stepped off the plane before declaring that his boss last season, Hanshin's Senichi Hoshino, is now "my enemy" and that "I'm really going to be pumped up for Hanshin games," according to Sankei Sports. However, when asked about Hanshin releasing him, he averred, "last year is last year. Now is a fresh start."
Even though he clearly got jerked around by the Osaka squad's front office, he then adopted a more conciliatory tone: "what do I think of Hoshino? He's a really good guy because he knows so much about baseball." Of Hanshin's batting order, he evaluated. "With Kanemoto there now, it's gotten stronger."
But the first order of business will be the Giants in the season's opening series and Valdes, who has 22 MLB starts under his belt, wants to open on the mound in one of them. He went on to praise the quality of the Dragons relief corps, implying that would be all the more reason to put him in the rotation.
Valdes was originally given number 36 by his new team, but has apparently now managed to wrest number 44 away from infielder Omar Linares. "It was the number I had when I was first called up to the big leagues," he revealed. "It's a lucky number."
Matsui Has His Fingerprints on Miyazaki
Hideki Matsui has left an impression on Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefecture, according to Sports Nippon. But that isn't due to his heroics during Yomiuri's spring training games there. Rather, in that city's downtown Nishi-Tachibana district, there will be a stone tablet erected with his handprint on it. And the monuments to the slugger keep on coming. In his hometown of Neagari-cho, Ishikawa Prefecture, there is a stone tablet commemorating his homer, rbi and batting titles in front of a museum dedicated to him. And the township has indeed decided to name a street in front of the Terai train station "Home Run Road" as a tribute to the new Yankee and to help spur tourism.
As for himself, Matsui spent the day visiting with Japanese baseball commissioner Hiromori Kawashima, promising that he would make Japanese baseball proud with his performance this season in New York. He then gave the beaming Kawashima one of his Yankees uniform tops as a present. The commissioner, after presenting Matsui with an english to japanese dictionary, sent him off with "take care of yourself and good luck. I'll be rooting for you."
Hot Shots....
Former Yokohama hurler Jason Turman and ex-Daiei DH Morgan Burkhart signed with the Kansas City Royals.... The high schools that Kazuhiro Sasaki, Ichiro Suzuki and Shigetoshi Hasegawa are all going to take part in the upcoming Koshien Spring High School Baseball Tournament and the trio couldn't be more pleased. "I heard we had a good team this year. If they put their best effort out on the field, good results will follow," Sasaki, an alumnus of Tohoku High School, cheered. Tohoku is spearheaded by lanky 6'4" Iranian-Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish, the son of an Iranian soccer star, who has been clocked at 91 mph. Hasegawa, who did his duty at Toyodai Himeji High, which is hoping to ride the left arm of its Vietnamese ace to the title, urged them to "fight with a positive frame of mind and don't be afraid to fail." Ichiro's alma mater, Aiko Meiden High, will be participating in their second consecutive Koshien tourney....Speaking of Ichiro, new Seattle skipper Bob Melvin said in a Sports Nippon interview that he was hoping to build a team that would take greatest advantage of Ichiro's strengths, with the model being the 80's St. Louis Cardinals that featured speedsters Willie McGee and Vince Coleman. "No matter where you pitch him, he can hit it, Melvin noted. Pete Rose was like that." That remark lead the Japanese sports daily to crow, "Manager's High Praise: Ichiro is Pete Rose!" Ichiro says that he would like to score 100 runs again, which would be a good start to the big year that Melvin is looking for him to have....Yomiuri rightfielder Roberto Petagine says that he wants to make it so that first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara can walk home and thus ease the strain on Kiyohara's barking hamstring. In other words, Petagine is aiming to hit tons of homers this season. Usually, guys who try to muscle up for the longball end up with mediocre or worse numbers. So we'll have to see how this plays out.....Giants manager Tatsunori Hara wants his charges to forget about Hideki Matsui and "remember that we're creating a new team with the players we already have." With one of those players being Petagine, Hara was agonizing over what to call the Venezuelan. Finally, he resorted to asking Takahiro Ikeyama, the former Yakult shortstop wo is now working as a baseball commentator. Ikeyama told him it was "Peta." Problem solved....Yomiuri players gathered at Aoshima Jinja to pray for a winning season. Kiyohara also bought a prayer plaque called an "ema" and inscribed on it, "world peace, realize my dreams, safe home"....Observing that infielder Bobby Rose has had a two season layoff, Lotte helmsman Koji Yamamoto is having him stand in during pitcher's bullpen throwing sessions in order to speed up his becoming used to facing live pitching once more.... Seibu Lions ace Daisuke Matsuzaka says that he wants to be the top dog among all athletes who graduated high school at the same time he did. Among those Daiei's Tsuyoshi Wada and Nagisa Arakaki, as well as Yomiuri's Hiroshi Kisanuki and Yuya Kubo. Newly minted sumo yokozuna Asashoryu is also in that class. The Japanese press often refer to these players as belonging to the "Matsuzaka generation." The ace righthander is using this as a motivational tool to push himself to the next level rather than an attempt to engage in the kind of boorish egotism you see in the NBA or the NFL. He worked out for two hours today, mostly running and playing catch....Nippon Ham manager Trey Hillman started his day by taking a 10K run around Nago Bay in Okinawa. "The scenery is beautiful, so whether I do it in the morning or the evening I want to keep doing it." For the Hillman Marching and Chowder Society, here is a pic of the former Yankees minor league field boss holding a fan that has the characters for "certain victory" imprinted on it: Photo....Hanshin batting instructor Koichi Tabuchi is one swingin' guy. He has ordered the team's young players to take 500 cuts a day with the bat.....Chunichi is apparently going to take a look at Alex Ochoa....Kintetsu shot caller Masataka Nashida is now saying that if he was offered the "same level of player," he would consider trading reliever Akinori Otsuka. However, that was then subsequently contradicted by a team executive. Kevin Beirne had his introductory press conference for the Buffs and said that he will take on whatever role they throw at him. He was originally projected to replace the departed Sean Bergman in the rotation, but with the Otsuka matter, he could end up being the closer....Yokohama manager Diasuke Yamashita distributed 80 "omori" (a kind of good luck charm) that he bought at a temple near his home in Shizuoka Prefecture to his players and coaches today in the hopes it would help his charges avoid the plague of injuries they suffered in 2002....Orix righthander Makoto Suzuki has never played in Japan, so fellow new signee Masato Yoshii, who was with Kintetsu and Yakult before traversing the Pacific Ocean to play in MLB, is showing him the ropes, informing Suzuki that a ballplayer's life in Japan isn't nearly as comfortable as in the big leagues....After seeing Hanshin reduce the length of their spring camp in Aki and Seibu up and moving their's elsewhere, Kochi Prefecture, in order to hold on to the Daiei Hawks presence in their area, are allowing that team to use the local ballpark for free, waving an $85,000 fee. The Prefecture was once reportedly known as "the Ginza of spring training sites," but has fallen on harder times recently....With Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe going ballistic over Norihiro Nakamura's dying his hair, something that ultimately doomed the Giants chances of acquiring the slugger, now Watanabe will have to contend with second year pitcher Hiroki Sanada showing up with a so-called "soft Mohican" that British soccer star David Beckham is known for. That should be fun....Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colborn says that Kazuhisa Ishii is displaying no ill effects from being struck by a line drive in a game against Houston last September. The former Orix coach also said that "he's still learning things. He'll get better every year." One aspect in which Colborn will put emphasis on this season is Ishii's command, which wasn't very good his rookie campaign even if he won 14 games....The Bruce Froemming incident got into the papers in Japan. Crikey, we've barely started spring training and already MLB has two black eyes, the Millar matter (for which both Florida and Boston share almost all of the blame) and the anti-semitic nonsense from a veteran umpire. What new fiascos do those portend?
Millar Won't Report to Dragons
Just to make things more complicated, Chunichi officially put Millar on its roster today, according to Chunichi Sports.
See story at: Boston Globe Article
Mariners to Broadcast Japan Games Back Home
See story at: The Oregonian Article
Mariners to Arrive in Japan Three Days Early
See story at: Tacoma Tribune Article
Tellem Talks About Matsui
See story at: Japan Today Article
Replies: 2 comments
I meant "How can the the Dragons NOT be significantly blamed..."
Posted by Oil Can @ 01/31/2003 10:30 PM EST
How can the Dragon's be significantly blamed for the Millar fiasco? They signed him while he was still a member of the Marlins and not yet passed thru waivers? The Sox were fully within their rights to claim him. Millar isn't doing anything that wasn't done to the Mets just recently, it's the Dragon's total intractability that is the difference. I would love to hear more of your opinion on this, because my bias is definitely with the Sox.
Posted by Oil Can @ 01/31/2003 10:28 PM EST
