HAKANIN.Sports

Paul’s Note: For the original article in Traditional Chinese, click HERE.

Here is the article:

“Today I saw Wil Nieves, everyone was there to say goodbye. It was not necessarily farewell since it is not certain that he will leave the Yankees system, but it was definitely a sad moment.

Every coach came over and gave him a hug, some I didn’t notice, but Larry Bowa and Ron Guidry looked like they did not want to part with him, sincerely embracing him, and patting Wil’s head; Charlie Wonsowicz, the person in charge of Yankees’ video operation / BP pitcher, also came to send him off. He didn’t say much, handed over a DVD which included all the ABs and defensive plays Nieves had this season. It was Charlie’s last present for him “Check it out, I hope it will help you in the future.”

Standing on the side, I was really moved by the scene, and the two female reporters next to me also had tears in their eyes.

Indeed, such transaction is common in sports world , but Wil being such a nice person, it was hard for people not to like him, and it was hard to see him go. He even tried to comfort everyone, “don’t be sad, maybe this will be good for me!”

Honestly, I know Wil is not that good of a player, but still I could not help but sadden by this. I appreciate all the comments people left earlier [in my blog] with stats and opinion [about the transaction], but I just want to say this one thing — during my 3 years covering the Yankees, Wil Nieves is the nicest and sweetest Yankee I have ever met. Good luck, Wil.

- Shelley Duncan stormed into the scene, Kim Jones [of YES Network] was roughed up by him, even Chien-Ming Wang experienced Duncan’s strength.

When I ran into Kim today, I asked about her hand, she grinned and said “thanks for your concern, but people have been making fun of me for the past two days, replays are shown nonstop on TV, they even had it in slow motion!” (by the way, someone asked how Kim is in person, I don’t know her too well, but she normally seemed nice.

As for our Chien-Ming Wang, his reaction to Duncan’s high-5 was “it really hurt!”

- Several friends wanted me to tell Andy Phillips that “he is really handsome,” well I did; Andy wants me to tell you guys that “Thanks for the compliments. Glad to know that I have fans in Taiwan.”

- At last, a little anecdote on Chien-Ming Wang.

Before the game today, the team set up a child with illness to meet with players outside of the clubhouse. Wang also showed up, took a couple pictures with the kid, and signed his autograph.

The man that accompanied the child said “did you thank him? Do you know where he is from?”
The child: “Where?”
The man: “He is from a place far far far away in Asia.”
The child: “Oh really? Where? What country?”
The man: “Japan.”

Wang and I were speechless.”

J-Train writes for the Word Journal, one of the bigger Mandarin news paper in North America, in NYC. He spends most of his time covering Asian athletes, with focus on Chien-Ming Wang and the New York Yankees. He recently became the first Taiwanese baseball writer to join the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). 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. For those English speaking fans, HAKANIN.com will continue to provide the translated version of his articles, so stay tuned!

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