Kuwata-mania

Funny Asia-related story from the Pittsburgh Trib's baseball writer. There's a 38-year old Japanese pitcher trying to fulfill a life-long dream of pitching in the Majors in Pirates camp this spring, this dude Masumi Kuwata. Apparently he's followed around by 25-50 members of the Japanese media at any given time (something I'm excited to see when I'm down there myself). Anyway, here's a run-in Nameless Beat Writer Who's Not Dejan Kovacevik had with a Japanese media person the other day:

Thursday, during the Pirates' Grapefruit League opener at McKechnie, I was asked to do an interview about Kuwata for Japanese TV. Sure, why not?

The "interview" was far different than what I'm used to as an American sports writer. The setup was staged -- the interviewer told me to pretend we met by accident at the game, while I was standing near the Cincinnati Reds bullpen, "writing" a story on my laptop. "Are you a newspaper writer?" Why, yes, I am. "Do you know about Masumi Kuwata?" Why, yes, I do. "Do you think he will do well pitching for the Pirates this season?" Actually, no, I don't.

Wrong answer, apparently. Take two.

My interviewer wasn't going to be happy until I said Kuwata would ring up the wins in Pittsburgh this summer. It was getting late in the ballgame and I still had my own stories to write, so I took the easy way out.

"Will Kuwata do well pitching for the Pirates this season?" Oh, yes. He'll win 20 games, maybe.

Smiles all around.

No big deal, I thought. After all, how many people in Japan would be watching that TV show, anyway?

About 125 million, I was told.

Welcome to Asian TV, Beat Writer Man, possibly the craziest thing on earth.

Comments