Japanese Reaction to Red Sox World Series Win?

October 30, 2007 8:40 AM

What was the Japanese media reaction to the Red Sox World Series win?

With all the Dice-K mania, I'd love to see how Japanese papers and media responded to the Red Sox' World Series win (especially of the game Matsuzaka pitched). Anyone have any idea where I could find something like this?

posted by deansfurniture5 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 comments total)

Well, here's his name in Japanese: 松坂 大輔. You could try searching for that.

A quick search of YouTube didn't bring anything up (the only result featuring Japanese tv reaction to the win has been removed for 'terms of use violation').
posted by KokuRyu at 8:47 AM on October 30, 2007

Of course, there's also a Japanese player on the Rockies, so there's not really a reason for the Japanese media to be heavily in favor of one team over the other, unless Dice-K is much more beloved in Japan than Kaz Matsui.
posted by LionIndex at 9:32 AM on October 30, 2007

Well, Daisuke is huge in Japan, as we was MVP of the World Baseball Classic and also is almost a legend ever since pitching a 250 pitch, 17 inning win in high school..him coming to the Red Sox was huge.

The Japanese media also was pretty critical of him this season for various reasons, like not pitching complete games and not doing as well as he did in Japan.

Also, the Red Sox have another Japanese pitcher, Hideki Okajima who was absolutely sensational this season.
posted by deansfurniture5 at 9:37 AM on October 30, 2007

I can't speak to recent events, but I was in Japan when Hideki Matsui landed on his wrist, snapping his absolutely insane games-played streak between the MLB and the Japanese leagues. It was the lead story on the news that night on most stations, and I can't count how many times I saw the replay of him diving for the fly. I can't imagine how much more explosive this coverage would be.
posted by avocet at 2:05 PM on October 30, 2007

Tadahito Iguchi, currently with the Philadelphia Phillies, is the first everyday Japanese player to play on a World Series-winning team, with the 2005 Chicago White Sox.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 9:38 PM on November 4, 2007

I hadn't seen this thread before, hope you check back on it sometime.

I don't have a direct answer to the question, but insights similar to avocet.

I was visiting family in Japan very late in the 2001 season. It was Ichiro's first year in America.

Much of the talk centered around whether or not Ichiro would win the MVP. My relatives, who seemed to be parroting the media, concluded that there was no way a Japanese player would win. I argued that we don't care where a player is from, we only care if they are good enough, which is why the MLB has players from EVERYWHERE. It is Japanese leagues that are protectionist and go out of bounds to protect their own native player's records. The story of Randy Bass and Sadaharu Oh is instructive, as is Japanese team's banning of more than 2 Gaijin's per team (not sure if that rule still stands).

But for sure it was huge news when Ichiro not only won the MVP but the Rookie of the Year as well, it was front page news on all the papers and covered very extensively on TV. It was also interesting because many Japanese were upset when he left, because they felt he insulted Japanese baseball by stating he wanted to go play "with the best in the world"...but they seemed to forgive him when he flourished.
posted by vito90 at 4:27 PM on November 11, 2007