HAKANIN.Sports

As mentioned in my previous post that I am a fan of The J-Train Blog. For those not sure what I am talking about, click here to read the old entry. I recently got his permission to translate his stories, to share the great insights he offers with fans that cannot read Traditional Chinese. You may also view the story by go to the site directly, if you prefer read it in Chinese that is.

Here is the article:

“Today, I was able to witness a thoughtful side of Mike Mussina, a side that warms one’s heart.

For the past 3 years, my impression of Mussina has been that he is a very intelligent individual. Everyone knows that he has a degree in economics from Stanford, but one can easily sense his wit by simply observing

On the baseball field, Mussina is a smart pitcher, always in control of what he is doing; during practice, he is also usually a leader among other pitchers , always running his mouth to tell the younger ones to do this and that. He sometimes even gives coaches advice, suggesting what to do, as if he’s one of them. When pitching coach Ron Guidry is with Chien-Ming Wang in the bullpen, Mussina will also share his knowledge with Wang, not holding anything back. It doesn’t matter whether Mussina does it from the bottom of his heart, or under order of Guidry, the point is that he has been helping Wang along the way.

Outside the ballpark, Mussina is very well spoken, unlike other players; he dresses casually, usually wearing t-shirt and jeans for the comfort, especially shirts with Stanford logos on them. When speaking with the media, he is very approachable, if the question is appropriate or interesting, he will chat with you for hours, having an intellectual conversation. However, if he encounters a dumb question, Moose is not afraid of refusing to answer, or respond with extreme sarcasm.

When I began covering the Yankees, I noticed such interaction with the media, before I spoke with him for the first time, I asked a veteran beatwriter whether Mussina is a difficult person and her answer was that “as long as you don’t ask stupid questions, you’ll be fine.”

It seemed a bit terrifying to me.

However, my impression of him has improved tremendously recently. First of all, during this year’s spring training, I helped the Yankees with the Chinese version of their annual media guide. While flipping through the booklet, I learned that Mussina is very active in community service, especially for the kids. He often participates at local charity events, donating money and baseball equipment to schools in New York and Pennsylvania, where he resides. He is also an volunteer for the Red Cross on top of it all.

And then before the game today, he was about to get on the field to warm up, several kids in the stand called out his name for some autographs. Mussina walked over to them, and I was standing right next to the young fans.

Many players often just sign their autographs and walk off, but Mussina was very friendly and chatted with all of them:

“Hey, What’s your name?”
“Can I sign on your baseball?”
“You got a pen I can borrow?”
“Here, help me with the cap, yeah that’s it!”
“There you go…how are you doing in school?”
“Oh, you are here at the game with your parents? Man you are lucky!”

Can you imagine how happy those kids were? The signed balls were no longer important, the fact that they were able to speak with their idol face to face, the simple conversation and a pat on the head are something they will probably never forget.

Seeing the bright smiles on the kids, and the thankful look on their parents, I can’t help but moved by the scene, thinking to myself “what a upstanding person you are!”

On the mount, Mussina’s stats has been declining, but to me he is still the well-mannered, good looking pitcher from the Orioles; the Moose I will remember, is the smart-ass Moose who will have fun with inexperienced media members; is the veteran pitcher that helped Chien-Ming Wang when he arrived in the big league; and of course, the gentle, loving Moose that took time chatted with his young fans.”

- J-Train

Paul’s note: this is the first article I attempted to translate, hope I didn’t butcher it too much. Feel free to leave me comments on how I can improve my writing, because I expect to translate more of J-Train’s articles in the future, or just leave comments for J-Train for what you would like to know about the Yankees. Thanks! For more of his articles, you may go to The J-Train Blog (it’s in Traditional Chinese), or click HERE for my translated ones.

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Filed under: Chien-Ming Wang, Joseph Liao, MLB, New York Yankees, Sports, The J-Train Blog