Daisuke Adapts

It seems our Daisuke Matsuzaka is doing just fine in the United Startes. This, from the Hartford Courant, and then a comment or two from me. As usual, the entire article can be accessed by clicking on this post's title. OK, here you go.....

"Daisuke Matsuzaka will face many adjustments as he transitions from life in Japan to the United States. But the Red Sox's $103 million pitcher has already conquered a big one.Matsuzaka said he will report to spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., Feb. 12, four days before pitchers and catchers are required to arrive.
He is using his time in California to prepare for pitching every five days with the Red Sox. Matsuzaka pitched in a six-man rotation for the Seibu Lions in Japan.
"Joining a five-day rotation is a new experience for me, and I'm just trying to get my overall strength up in preparation for that," Matsuzaka said. "It's a big challenge. I have a purposeful [training] menu every day. I negotiate with my body, see how I feel, and decide what to do that day."

Peter here, and this makes me feel good. Daisuke is here early, working out and getting used to not only the five man rotation but the American food, which in the article, he praised. And he said he'll report to spring training 4 or 5 days early. This is a man who knows the eyes of his native land are upon him, so he must do well or lose face. And that means good things for the RSN in all of us! The article said it best......

Daisuke Matsuzaka apologized to the Japanese media and nation for scheduling his press briefing yesterday on the same day as the start of spring training in Japan.
Yet Matsuzaka’s timing, as well as his admission that he has found the vegetables and fish in the United States much better than he could have hoped for, were perfect for Red Sox [team stats] fans."

Click on the title for the entire piece, and I'll be back later on this cold Thursday, the day before our first significant snow of the season here in north central Connecticut. And yes, Daisuke, you did well with that press conference, and your approach to the whole transition to the USA and the change to American baseball. And you're funny! This translator is able to describe the nuances of what you were saying to us far better than the one Boras(S) supplied. Keep him! We're keeping you for, oh, say, five hopefully wonderful and history-making years. Great years to come for our Boston Red Sox. On this first day of February, hope beckons like a warm neighbor who is surrounded by an 80 degree cloudless sky, with a warm breeze to ruffle the air and carry the scent of the sea through every pore of one's being. Whoa, for a second there I was back in St. Croix, but then I opened my eyes to a rapidly lowering cloudy sky with temperatures around 20F. I think I'll close my eyes again. Have a great day, everyone.
So as we bask in the two feel-good stories I printed and commented on today, I hope everyone makes the most of their Thursday. And as always, in the words of Richard Pryor, from the always entertaining movie SILVER STREAK (rent it! He and Gene Wilder are comic gems, as is the movie) "We aims to please!" SO DO I.