Holiday Interviews Around The Majors 2006

I had this post 90% written up over the holiday break and somehow completely forgot to finish and post it. Oops. Despite that it's two weeks late, I figure that since I did this last year too, I might as well continue with tradition. MLB.com did a summary of their own, but I had a different opinion on which ones were the best.

Basically, they go around and each team's beat reporter interviews someone associated with the team, asking various questions about the holiday season, which vary from team to team. Overall, the 30 teams were represented by 10 infielders, 4 outfielders, 9 pitchers, 4 managers, and 3 broadcasters. Yes, oddly, no catchers. I don't think it was on purpose.

This year's were on average a little bit more fun than last year's, but there weren't quite as many standout moments. Still, let's see:

Funny Ones

As usual, I think the best ones are when they pick on their teammates:

First Place: Aaron Rowand, Philadelphia Phillies

MLB.com: If Santa added a 10th reindeer, what should its name be?

Rowand: Phanatic.

MLB.com: What gift would you get for Jimmy Rollins?

Rowand: You can't get him jewelry or anything baseball-related, because he already owns everything. He's a tough guy to shop for. You know what? I'd make my own rap CD and give it to him, because he's into music and he can market it. It'd be called "MC-Row-dog." That would be my label.

MLB.com: Is there one teammate you really want to get something for?

Rowand: I'd get Cole Hamels a Flowbee. I mean, just look at his hair.

Second place: Nick Punto, Minnesota Twins

MLB.com: Next on your list is Torii Hunter.

Punto: I think I'd have to give Torii three hours of sit-down advice on how to play cards. He's just awful.

MLB.com: OK, last one and this should be good. What would you get the man whose locker is right next to yours -- Mike Redmond?

Punto: Geez, Red Dog is easy. There are so many things I could get him. But if I had to give one, I think it would be my green Speedo. He really seems to love that thing.

MLB.com: You mean the one that has become almost a good luck charm of sorts around the club?

Punto: Yeah, I think I'd actually frame that green Speedo and let him put in on the wall of his game room. I know he wants it because every time I put it on, he's always saying just how awesome it is.

Third Place: Jeff Francoeur, Atlanta Braves

MLB.com: If you were getting a gift for Chipper Jones, what would it be?

Francoeur: From a serious perspective, I'd probably get him a new gun or something that he could use on his ranch. From a joking perspective, I'd give him a new foot so that he could stay in the lineup all year.

MLB.com: How about for Andruw Jones?

Francoeur: Andruw has everything. He'd be impossible to shop for. I wouldn't even know what to get him. I guess I'd just get him a free car wash for all of his cars.

MLB.com: And for John Smoltz?

Francoeur: I'd get him tickets for a Michigan State football game so that he and I could go up together, and I could just sit there and make fun of him the whole time.

Honorable Mention: Dave Raymond, Houston Astros Broadcast Team

MLB.com: You were hired a year ago, just six days before Christmas. Describe how you felt when they told you they were hiring you, and just how merry was that Christmas?

Dave Raymond: Let's just say that I wasn't terribly concerned as to whether or not I'd get a Rubik's cube on Christmas morning. It changed Christmas dramatically, of course. It was more like a five- or six-day celebration. It was fun and a surprise.

That day was surreal. We came to the office. They went to give Roy Oswalt his bulldozer. I was just watching two grown men exchanging bulldozers.

MLB.com: What's at the top of your baseball Christmas list?

Dave Raymond: I just want to hang out more with Brad Ausmus and Mike Lamb. That's really all I want. I just want them once to acknowledge the fact that when we're out somewhere other than the ballpark and I'm within 20 feet of them, we're technically "hanging out." I want them to acknowledge that. They don't even have to speak to me. Like at the baseball dinner in January, Brad will be there and I will be there. Technically, absolutely, we're hanging out.

Also, I want more 18-inning games.

I am looking forward to the Astros getting back to the playoffs in their rightful spot at the top of the division. Especially should it come at the expense of the Cubs, who spared no expense in the offseason.

Honorable Mention: Scott Proctor, New York Yankees

MLB.com: What do you want for Christmas this year?

Proctor: To not get traded. I also told my wife I wanted an ATV, but she told me I couldn't have one until Camden, my 3-year-old son, could ride it. I've got about three or four years to go, I guess.

MLB.com: Who's more popular, Derek Jeter or Santa Claus?

Proctor: No offense to Derek, but I've got to go with Santa Claus.

Interesting ones

These interviews were put online on December 23rd. Ironically, that's the same day Brandon McCarthy got traded.

MLB.com: What's the best individual baseball gift you could get during the 2007 season?

McCarthy: Twenty wins and a Cy Young, I guess. Less than 50 home runs allowed? Something like that. I'll stick with 20 wins -- that would be nice to get.

I found this one to be particularly insightful, though I had initially been disappointed that the Indians interviewed broadcaster Matt Underwood instead of a player:

MLB.com: Well, we talked a little about shopping. What have you thought of the Indians' holiday shopping this winter?

Underwood: It's interesting. Mark Shapiro is like the guy who waited until the last minute to go shopping, and the store is kind of picked clean already. And I don't say that Mark's done anything wrong. It's just that there's just not a lot available. So he's looking at what's on the shelf to buy, and he's got to make do with what's available. I think he's done a good job with what's available. We knew they weren't going to go out and spend crazy on an Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Lee. That's not their style, and not many teams can afford to do that. Based on what's available, he's done a great job. You can say, "Maybe he could have done better on the trade route." But the asking prices on trades have been astronomical.

Everything they've done has been economically sound and operationally sound. You know, Mark's always been hesitant to give multiyear contracts to the bullpen guys because of the volatility from year to year. So what do you do? You sign Joe Borowski to one year with an option. Roberto Hernandez and Aaron Fultz were the same situation. It's very consistent. And the David Dellucci signing is a great move. It's a veteran with experience, and the guy adds some presence. It can't do anything but help.

This is a kinda cool story along with something weird. I mean, are baseball players allowed to admit they like Star Trek? Reds pitcher Todd Coffey thinks so:

MLB.com: Although you're not much into receiving, was there a favorite gift you remember getting when you were young?

Coffey: When I was 13 one Christmas, Mom and Dad got me a special gift. My mom wrapped it 10 times with different colored paper so she would know if I opened it. When I did open it, it was a 1994 baseball from the World Series that wasn't. It was a baseball made for the World Series (stamped), and it was the baseball game that wasn't. I don't know how they got it, but it's still on the mantle at my house.

MLB.com: Do you have a favorite holiday movie?

Coffey: One of my favorite movies is "A Christmas Carol," with Ebenezer Scrooge. I like the one that has Patrick Stewart playing Ebenezer Scrooge, because I'm a big "Star Trek" and Patrick Stewart fan. I love that story. It's a great story.

Other ones I found interesting were:
Freddy Sanchez, Pirates
Eric Gagne, Rangers
Buddy Bell, Royals
Ben Zobrist, Devil Rays
Randy Wolf, Dodgers
John Maine, Mets

Others

This is the list of ones where I'd see the player name and think "Oh cool," then read the interview and thought it was a letdown:
Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks
Chone Figgins, Angels
Mike Cameron, Padres
Brian Roberts, Orioles
Sean Casey, Tigers

In Seattle There's Plenty of Rain, Dear

And on one final note, of course, the Mariners contribution came from none other than Dobby The Bench Elf:

MLB.com: What would be the best present the Mariners could find under their Christmas tree?

Greg Dobbs: I think the best Christmas present they could get now would be the one that's under the tree, but they can't open it until the end of the season. That would be us being in position to win the American League West.

Obviously, they couldn't open it now, so I guess it would be a gift for next Christmas.

Kazumi Saitoh in Arizona

He's such a dork, he arrived and almost immediately updated his blog on his website :) And because I'm such a dork I figured I'd write out a blog translation.

Today's entry will be here once it becomes backnumbered. He's apparently in Phoenix with fellow Hawks Hiroki Kokubo and Tomoaki Egawa (and Yokohama's Yoshimi). 43-year-old veteran pitcher Kimiyasu Kudoh, who just got taken by the Bay Stars as compensation for the Giants signing away FA Ken Kadokura, has also been in Phoenix for a while. Anyway, Saitoh writes:

Yay! My computer's up and I've got a net connection! (though I didn't set it up.)
From today onwards (it's now 9:30pm on the 8th in Arizona) we've started our independent training!
Honestly, starting training has me thinking a bunch of mixed feelings, from "I'm nervous", to "Okay, I've started training again" to "Geez... it's already started...?"
But, in order to feel less uneasy in spring training amidst the shouts of "run!" "throw!" etc, I think I want to get back into a serious workout routine while I'm here.
Arizona has some crazy awesome weather!
It's like Hawaii or Guam, really high temperature (hot like summertime), but the humidity is low, it's a really great environment to be in.
Only catch is that I have to be careful of the low temperatures in the morning and evening. Except for that, this is the best place ever!

Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep to prepare for tomorrow's workout. I want to get up early for training camp.
I'll write more about it again later.
So, goodnight...

I've thought it might be fun to translate some Japanese player blogs here from time to time, we'll see. I should go back and translate the one where Saitoh was like, "51 million dollars?!?! Holy crap!"

Also, alert Jeff Shaw! Ex-Hawk Tadahito Iguchi is hanging out in Nago, Okinawa, trying to teach Hawks catcher Naoki Matoba how to hit. Given that catcher is the main hole in the lineup offense-wise for the Hawks next year, this could be a great service Iguchi is providing for his former team.

No Goose, No Juice

2007 HOF Inductees Announced.

The two shoe-ins were elected, and that was it -- Ripken Jr, Gwynn Sr. No Mac, no Bert, no Rice, no dice.

I honestly don't have much of an opinion on the McGwire issue. I'm surprised by the low number of votes, but not surprised that he didn't make it in, I guess.

Jay Buhner got one token vote, but the real close shave here went to Goose Gossage, who fell only 21 votes short of election this year with 71.2% of the vote. I'll take this opportunity as a baseball book nerd to plug his autobiography The Goose Is Loose, which earned him a spot in the Baseball Books Wall of Fame as far as I'm concerned -- it's pretty damn entertaining stuff.

Also, yesterday was 2006 inductee Bruce Sutter's birthday. It would have been much funnier if the results were announced then.

In completely unrelated news, but I don't feel like making a separate post yet, Esteban Yan will be playing for the Hanshin Tigers next year. Whoa.

Japan Photos, Part 7b - Chiba

This is the second half of my Chiba pictures, from September 13th. I had basically gone to the Monday game on a whim, but the Wednesday game I went to with Tokyo Sam, a guy from the Mariners blogosphere. It was pretty fun, and we hung out in Makuhari for a while and got to the stadium early and explored the Marines Museum and team store. I even got to play the Konami arcade game Baseball Heroes while we were in Makuhari, which was pretty neat.

The bad part about the day was that it was raining for the entire game. Wackier, that didn't actually stop both teams from playing a full game. Shingo Ono pitched a complete game shutout for the Marines, winning 7-0. Kanehisa Arime started for Rakuten, and while I think he's actually a pretty good pitcher, he had sort of wrecked his arm pitching a 12-inning 17-strikeout 188-pitch complete game only a week or two before this game, so. He did later end up kicking butt in the Hawaii Winter League, so I was redeemed for thinking highly of him.

You can read my blog entry of the day, or check out the score page on Lotte's site.

So, this photo set starts with a lot of Marines museum pictures and then goes into a rainy batting/fielding practice, and then has a bunch of game photos. Despite the crappy weather I took a surprising number of pictures. If it hadn't been raining, it would have been pretty awesome, but alas.

Full photoset with thumbnails and descriptions here:
Marines vs. Eagles at Chiba Marine Stadium, September 13, 2006

As usual I'll throw up a few highlights. I had to cut a lot of Satozaki pictures out of this set. Yeah, I know I'm hopeless.

Chiba Marine Stadium, the Marines Museum, and a tarp-covered rainy field.


Baseball Heroes arcade game, player roster in the museum, mock outfield in the museum


Mock clubhouse, Marines Wall of Fame, some cool old game posters from the 70's and 80's


1950's history, Choji Murata display, Nishioka corner in the team store, gratuitous pet clothes, me with Ma-Kun, one of the Marines mascots


Catchers Tsuji and Satozaki, Katsunori Nomura, Kenshi Kawaguchi, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Rakuten starter Kanehisa Arime


Lotte starter Shingo Ono, Hisanori Nishitani taking a mighty swing, Benny lunging back into first base


Rainy dugout and Imae signing stuff, rainy balloon inflating, people avoiding the rain


Benny Agbayani!, Val Pascucci, Tomoya Satozaki breaking a bat, Satozaki, Jose Fernandez


Man, going through my pictures is taking me forever. I still have a few more sets -- next up is Meiji Jingu Stadium and the Yakult Swallows game... then maybe more Seibu, then definitely Yokohama, then the Japanese Baseball hall of fame, and by the time I finish all that I'll be ready to head back to Japan and take more pictures, I'm sure!

I think I had originally figured my last set -- the Japanese hall of fame -- would be finished in time to coincide with the announcing of the american HOF inductees, which should be in approximately 8 hours. Oh well...

Japan Photos, Part 7a - Chiba

I had two whole days of pictures from Chiba Marine Stadium this trip, so here's the first day's set, from September 11th. The second set, from September 13th, will feature the Marines Museum too, and will theoretically go up tomorrow.

You can read my blog entry about the day or look at the game report on the Marines site, which has pictures that are a lot like mine, but taken by someone much closer to the action, and featuring less cheerleaders :) The Eagles beat the Marines 6-2, with a whole lot of guys named Yamazaki scoring runs for Rakuten. I went to the game to see Yoshihisa Naruse, the young lefty Lotte rookie pitcher, but now looking back, it's cool that I got to see the Rakuten starter Ryan Glynn, since he'll be on the Fighters next year! Yay!

Full photoset with thumbnails and descriptions here:
Marines vs. Eagles at Chiba Marine Stadium, September 11, 2006

And as usual I'll throw up a few highlights of the set. If that Matt Watson fan from Athletics Nation is around, he'll love this set, because I have a whole lot of "Watty", as he was playing right field and I was sitting right near there.

Chiba Marine Stadium, at night, infield, outfield, and scoreboard:


Eagles starter Ryan Glynn, Lotte starter Yoshihisa Naruse, Lotte outfielder Saburo Ohmura:


Cheerleaders welcome players, Tatsuya Shiokawa falls down turning a double play, and Teppei is out at the plate:


Matt Watson (x2), Hisao Heiuchi, Masato Watanabe, Tsuyoshi Nishioka:


Aono at bat, cheer girls dancing, mascots posing, and a young Satozaki fan:


There's more in the full set, with the balloon launching and sightings of Satoru Komiyama and Justin Miller, among other things, but I'm kind of bad at picking these highlight sets out.

NPB Roundup: Quickie

I really just needed an excuse to pass along this Sports Illustrated Q&A with Kei Igawa which is the funniest sports interview I've ever read in my entire life. You have to wonder if he was trying to be deadpan, or if things got lost in translation, or what. Make sure you read the second page as well. (Thanks to mijow on the jb forums for posting it; it gave me a huge laugh when I really needed one.)

The Lotte Zuleta deal became official. So did Guiel with Yakult.

Fighters pitcher Tomoya Yagi, 2006 PL ROY, cut his hair really short and it looks weird.

Well, you know I'm a huge Makoto Kaneko fan, and I hadn't noticed that he was still doing Weekly Mack radio interviews even after the Japan Series, though the last one is from Christmas, talking about Christmas memories and about how he got his nickname and random other stuff. Also, the 2007 Jan/Feb wallpapers on the official Fighters site are of Kaneko and of manager Hillman. I've got the Kaneko wallpaper up; it's cute because it looks like he's staring in confusion at all my desktop icons.

Nikkan Sports has been doing daily "New Face" articles on the new Fighters draftees and I was thinking I'd translate and compile highlights of them when they're all done, but if you want to read what's there so far, today's was of Ken Miyamoto, their college/industry kibouwaku pick from Waseda. They did articles on the high school picks first, with Mitsuo Yoshikawa, Yuusuke Uemura and Romash Tasuku Dass.

Michihiro Ogasawara's clean-shaven doppleganger is training at his old stomping grounds at the NTT Kanto facilities in Funabashi, where he played in the industrial leagues. His theme for this year is 挑戦, "Challenge". He apparently got a little sunburned while travelling in Hawaii over New Year's. See, that's what he gets for shaving his beard off and leaving the Fighters!

There's a rumor that Nolan Ryan might coach the Fighters for a week or two during spring camp, helping out fellow Texans Trey Hillman and Dave Owen. No idea if there's any substance to it, but that'd be damn cool if it came to pass. Also, maybe he could help straighten out the Ryan Glynn / Andy Green name issue by being another "Ryan".

Actually, players are doing personal training all over the place -- you know, the training they do BEFORE reporting to Spring Camp on February 1. Fortunately, reporters are following them all over the place. While several of the Hawks are going to Guam, Hiroki Kokubo and Kazumi Saitoh are apparently coming to Arizona to train for a few weeks, actually, but of course, I have no idea where in Arizona exactly.

On a sadder note, Giants slugger Seung-Yeop Lee's mother died of a brain tumor today. That sucks.

EDIT 1/7>
I don't feel like making a whole separate entry for these links but:
Kazuo Fukumori goes to Todaiji and tries to fit through the "nose of the Daibutsu" hole in a wooden pillar near the Buddha. I swear to god my best friend and I spent like twenty minutes watching various people try to do this when we went there in September. It was hilarious.

Nikkan Sports has a little part of their site called Darvish's Room. You know, just so there can be a nice little section of the web that is All Darvish, All The Time. I love it, I really do. It goes perfectly with their Shinjo Legends page...

EDIT 1/8> Keisaku Itokazu and Kazunori Yamamoto were added to the Fighters new faces, so I'm keeping track here.

Mariners Caravan and Fan Fest 2007

(I originally wrote this for here, then Blogger barfed on me so I posted it to Lookout Landing, now I'm going to post it here anyway. So there.)

The Mariners have info on their website now about Fan Fest 2007 and the Mariners Caravan 2007.

I have to admit that Fan Fest really doesn't look all that exciting yet. I mean, the scheduled players as of yet are Felix, Betancourt, and JJ Putz. Whee. Though, to be fair, I'm not sure everyone who actually appeared last year was listed beforehand; guys like Norm Charlton and Mike Blowers and Dave Valle also gave Q&A sessions and chatted with people, for example, and even Mike Hargrove was wandering around at one point. (Another thing Hargrove and Bavasi have in common are that they're both left-handed and are pretty nice if you stop and ask them to sign something, if you're wondering.) Hopefully a couple more players will be there, or it's going to be a lot of long boring Q&A sessions with Bavasi and Lincoln.

Anyway, Fan Fest is January 27th and 28th, from 10am to 4pm, at Safeco Field. Adults are $10, kids ages 6-14 are $5 and kids under 5 years old are free. If you want to get a specific player's autograph, you should probably show up at least an hour before the gates open in order to get an autograph voucher. I have no idea if we'll pull together a blog contingent for it this year or not.

In case you are nowhere near Seattle, but are within the Mariners geographical market, they also have the wonderful Mariners Winter Caravan, coming soon to a place near you!

I thought the opening stop at IKEA last year was actually pretty fun, and they had Jamie Moyer as well as Sherrill and Putz, and Jamie's just great with fans and is really funny to see when he's dressed in street clothes. But this year, there's no kickoff event like that, and the closest they seem to be getting to Seattle is either the Alderwood Mall team store, or the UPS Fieldhouse down in Tacoma, both towards the end of the tour.

They spend about half of their time sessions in elementary schools and the Mariners Care get-well sessions, and about half the time in public autograph sessions. For the full details on these locations, see the official page. The public ones are:

Week 1: Jones and Morse
Jan 9, 4:30-6pm : Olympia, Mariners Team Store: Adam Jones, Mike Morse, Rick Rizzs, the Moose
Jan 12, 4-5:30pm : Longview, Lower Columbia College: Adam Jones, Mike Morse, the Moose

Week 2: The Green Woods
Jan 16, 4:15-5:45pm : Wenatchee, Wenatchee Valley College Gym: Sean Green, Jake Woods, the Moose
Jan 17, 4:30-6pm : Pasco, Columbia Basin College Gym: Sean Green, Jake Woods, the Moose
Jan 18, 4-5:30pm : Walla Walla, Whitman College Sherwood Center: Sean Green, Jake Woods, the Moose
Jan 19, 4:15-5:45pm : Spokane, Spokane Falls Community College: Sean Green, Jake Woods, Dave Valle, the Moose

Week 3: How's Your Elbow?
Jan 23, 4:15-5:45pm : Mount Vernon, Skagit Valley College Pavilion: JJ Putz, Mark Lowe, the Moose
Jan 25, 4:30-6pm : Lynnwood, Alderwood Mariners Team Store: JJ Putz, Mark Lowe, John McLaren, Rick Rizzs, the Moose
Jan 26, 4:15-5:45pm : Tacoma, Univ. of Puget Sound Memorial Fieldhouse: JJ Putz, Mark Lowe, John McLaren, Rick Rizzs, the Moose


I would vaguely consider trying to go up to the Lynnwood one, except that with normal working hours and rush hour traffic, it's fairly impossible for me to get there by 6pm. I took off a few hours early from work to go to the IKEA one last year, and PositivePaul went down to the Olympia one (and had quite an adventure meeting George Sherrill). If anyone ends up going to some of these, you should totally share your stories (and harrass Rick Rizzs about his facial hair)!

Happy New Year, or something

Happy New Year, folks. I'm still in Philadelphia, where the Iggles managed to somehow win their division with a bunch of second-string and third-string guys on New Year's Eve. For a while this weekend I was fairly sure that "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!!" was Philadelphian for "Happy New Year 2007!", as I remember drifting off to sleep around 3am on New Year's Day, when all of a sudden, outside my window, some more people were stumbling home from the bars down the street yelling "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!!!"

But anyway, that's why I haven't really written much. (The being in Philadelphia and celebrating New Year's part, not the football part.) I did pick up a book about Veterans Stadium the other day, which could potentially be very good or very bad; it's by Rich Westcott, and my general opinion of his books is that they are full of awesome information but I have a lot of trouble staying awake while reading them. He tends to write about Philly sports in general, and I have no doubt in my mind that his brain is a vast store on the subject.

Today I went to the Franklin Institute, which is a really old science museum in Philadelphia which I went to several times a year when I was growing up here. They have a great room now on "Science and Sports", which has things like a simulated wheelchair race, a rockclimbing wall, a racecar reflex test, a "how high can you jump?" measuring gadget, and a speed pitch machine, among other stuff. I throw like a girl. But that's beside the point -- another feature of the room is a bunch of sports figures pictured along one wall, including Bobby Abreu to represent baseball, and Al Iverson to represent basketball, and they even have the Phillies and Sixers uniforms from those two framed and displayed. I don't think they actually had a named Eagles player on the wall, but I'm sure whoever that is would have to get traded soon too!

In sadder news, George Sisler Jr. died this weekend of Alzheimer's. The strange part is that I read it first in the Japanese baseball news instead of over here. I didn't even realize that Sisler Jr was a minor-league GM and president for a while; to be fair, I know very little of the Sislers except for the George whose record Ichiro broke. I should remedy that sometime.