Saturday, December 18, 2010

Tsuyoshi Nishioka officially a Twin

The contract was finalized on Friday, and the Twins and Japanese batting champ are to hold a press conference today at 4 p.m.; Fox Sports North said last night it would carry the presser live.

Which should be interesting, as neither Nishioka nor his wife are said to speak any English. La Velle Neal last night linked to this video of Nishioka and Twins officials (including GM Bill Smith and president Dave St. Peter) trying to get the equipment details. Between the need for translation and the difference between metric measures and English measures, they were't getting very far.

Twins guy: What weight?
Translator: His weight? (points to Nishioka)
Twins guy: The weight of the bat.
(Translator and Nishioka exchange words)
Translator: 910 grams.
Twins guy: Yeah, that's what I thought.

There were supposedly 15 Japanese media folk along, so the presser is going to be ... multilingual. And the Twins' first real taste of the unique dynamic of having a Japanese star on the roster.

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