HAKANIN.Sports

Paul’s Note: The following article was posted on 7/27. For the original article in Traditional Chinese, click HERE.

Here is the article:

“I didn’t follow the Yankees to Kansas City this week, so I don’t have anything first hand to provide. However, I was able to find a couple good stories on Wang when I went through my notes during my 2-day break.

These anecdotes took place at the games, some I saw myself, some were told to me by American and Japanese media friends. I am not sure if other news reported these, but I figured I would put together the notes and share them with y’all.

• During the game against the Devil Rays on 7/14, Akinori Iwamura had a hit right off the bat, I am sure you guys still remember that. I really wanted to speak with him after the game, but my job was to follow Chien-Ming Wang. After getting what I needed, Devil Rays’ clubhouse was already pretty much empty. The next day, I was chatting with 2 Japanese reporter friends, they filled me in with some details of their interviews. During their interviews, they talked about Wang, and Iwamura had high praises for him. For those who understand Japanese, you might have read it in Japanese news. I don’t understand Japanese, and I only found out because my Japanese friends told me.Basically Iwamura said that “Wang is a very good pitcher; it was great news for us that he didn’t play for the World Baseball Classic. If Taiwan used him against us [Japan], it would be hard to tell if we can still win”For your information: this is an interview with the Japanese media. There were no members of Taiwanese media present, so Iwamura did not have to compliment Wang to be classy. Of course, Japan remains ahead of us in baseball, even if Chien-Ming Wang played in the Classic, beat Japan in a game, does not automatically mean Taiwanese baseball has a brighter future. But it’s still kind of cool to hear a top Japanese baseball player praising our Wang.
• Last weekend against the Devil Rays, Wang did not play. I chatted with him in the clubhouse for awhile before the Sunday game. Later he went to do some weight training and running. I stayed in the room after he left.Pitching coach Ron Guidry showed up, paced around the room mumbling to himself, looks like he was looking for Wang. So I said to him “hey coach, if you are looking for Wanger, he went running earlier so he should be in the weight room.”Gator replied: “Wanger? Of course I am not looking for him. Why would I want to look for him? He only causes me trouble, I hope I will never see him again!! He thinks he is an Ace now? Don’t make me laugh!”Afterward, he said “Where did you say he is? Running? Oh well, might as well let him run,” he smiled, turned and went back to his office.Gator is all talk, he actually really cares about Wang.
• A lot of people thought Robinon Cano and Wang are buddies, they went through the Minors together, so the friendship is there, but they are not as close as people think.The one that is closest to Wang, is possibly Mike Myers.Last time, when Wang had allergic reactions after eating seafood in Baltimore, it was Myers that took him out that night. In fact, whenever the team travels to different cities, Myers often takes Wang everywhere to get some good food, shopping, etc. He takes really good care of Wang; Myers even drags Wang to play Fantasy Golf with the rest of the team, even though Wang is clueless, picking randomly.Myers also loves playing Soduku, and Wang started to play recently as well. So once the two of them went head to head, trying to figure out who is better at it: Myers is experienced, solving the puzzle quickly. Wang tried to cheat off Myers, peeking over his shoulder, but still lost to him despite the effort.I heard about this Battle of Soduku from my American media friend who was there, according to him, Mike Myers had a casual look of “of course I am better” after beating Wang, and Wang was rather ticked off for by the defeat.”

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