※ 引述《xxeric (佛曰:不可說)》之銘言：
: 這個問題我自己一直找不到答案，
: 還請版上的各位大大幫我解惑了。
: 之前有聽說過sori在日本打過球，
: 而是被洋基買回大聯盟的。
: 但是他之前在日本待的是哪一支球隊呢？
: 似乎都沒聽說過，看了滿多報導也都沒有提及，
: 煩請知道的大大解釋一下囉。
: 不過他似乎沒有學到日本人的選球功力:p
我從資料庫裡面翻出來這篇以前曾經簡單提過的文章，兩年半以前New
York Times的Yankees beat writer Buster Olney在春訓的時候寫的關
於Sori的報導，裡面提到了不少他在日本時候的心情。文章很長，我只
能幫忙排版方便BBS上面閱讀。至於翻譯這種事情我是向來不愛做的。
倒是一篇不錯的勵志文章就是了，比起小時候讀的那些看魚逆水向上游
要有意思多了。
Buster Olney現在在替ESPN寫文章，他是這幾年最好的Yankees beat
writer，人脈也都還在，他寫的關於Yankees的消息應該算是比較可以
信任的。在ESPN現在有一堆Yankees hater作家的情形下，Olney還算
對Yankees公平。
日本人選球有比較厲害嗎？扣掉那些slap hitter，好像也不見得高明
到哪裡去。
Making Adjustments Isn't New to Soriano
Buster Olney. New York Times. Mar 25, 2001.
The conversations were always the same and Alfonso Soriano
longed to talk about something other than the weather or
baseball, but he had no choice. He was 17 and playing baseball
in Hiroshima, Japan, and only one person with the team spoke
Spanish, Soriano's native language.
Soriano liked him well enough, but the man -- an employee of
the team -- was from Japan and he and Soriano had little
common history. So they talked about the weather and baseball,
baseball and the weather, and Soriano would glance at the
clock and visualize what his mother and his friends were doing
back home, in the Dominican Republic, at that moment.
Soriano is 23 now, and in the last two weeks the Yankees have
asked him to switch positions twice. First, after his batting
average hovered near .500 and he established himself as the
team's best player in spring training, the Yankees moved him
from shortstop to left field, to ensure that he would have a
place in the team's lineup once the regular season begins, on
April 2. Then last week, when Manager Joe Torre and club
officials reached the consensus that throwing jitters had
conquered the defensive play of second baseman Chuck Knoblauch,
Knoblauch was shifted to left field and Soriano moved to
second base, a switch that will probably last throughout the
2001 season.
There is much talk of change now and the ability to adapt.
Playing second base is completely different than playing
shortstop because the angles are different. And when turning a
double play, the second baseman has his back to the runner
before throwing to first -- a distinction that can be
disconcerting if the infielder is afraid of the unknown, of
getting targeted and blindsided by the runner. Soriano will be
a good second baseman, said Trey Hillman, his Class AAA
manager. He is fearless, Hillman said.
Dozens of major league shortstops were raised in San Pedro de
Macoris, Tony Fernandez and Mariano Duncan and others. Soriano
was born there in 1978 and, as a teenager, he began attending
a Japanese baseball academy and eventually signed with the
Hiroshima Carp. There was some talk in his family of waiting
to sign with a team from the United States, but this was the
opportunity before him. As Soriano explained last week through
an interpreter, Leo Astacio, he and his mother and a friend
who was advising him all agreed that baseball was baseball, in
America and Japan. As a teenager, he could not have fully
understood that there were differences.
Soriano boarded a plane for the first time, at age 17, and
made the 19-hour journey to Japan. The training regimen in
Japan is exceptionally difficult, compared to those of the
professional teams in North America; it is like the difference
between a military boot camp and a genial job orientation
program. Players work for hours, the coaches scream and
Soriano, of course, understood little of what they yelled.
His first assignment there lasted three months, three months of
talking about baseball and the weather, and thinking about home,
the food, his mother.
''Every day, I thought about going home,'' he said. Phoning home
was problematic, and he called only twice, for 15 minutes, after
getting up overnight to account for the time change. ''I called
just when I felt like I was ready to explode and needed someone
to talk to,'' Soriano said.
The conversations helped, and hurt; they merely exacerbated his
desire to go home. But Soriano went back in 1996, for 10 months,
and for 10 months in 1997. By the end of his second year,
Soriano spoke Japanese well enough to function on his own. He
never seriously considered quitting.
The Yankees' infielder Luis Sojo was born and raised in
Venezuela and played in the Dominican Republic before signing
with Toronto on his 21st birthday, and now, at 36, he has
reached the conclusion that there is a certain stoicism to the
young ballplayers coming out of the Dominican. The teenagers
from Venezuela tend to be more outwardly affected by the
problems in leaving home, Sojo has concluded, recalling his own
experience. He phoned his parents repeatedly when he first left
home.
But Sojo believes the young players from the Dominican absorb
the pain of change and are more likely to accept it without
complaint; he believes it is because they are surrounded by
poverty while growing up. When opportunity is presented, it is
quickly recognized and seized, and for the young Dominican
ballplayers, any accompanying emotional pain is an acceptable
toll.
His time in Japan was hard, Soriano said, ''But I thought it
was good because it was going to be to my benefit. It was going
to be good for me and it would help my family, and I've always
thought that way. Once I was there, I could dedicate myself
and keep my mind positive.''
Soriano's assignment with Hiroshima ended because of a
contractual error; otherwise, he would have been tied to the
Carp for another decade or so. He signed with the Yanks in
September 1998 and immediately established himself as a rising
star, impressing scouts in the Arizona Fall League. Soriano
reached the majors the next year and Sojo told him to say
something in Japanese to the former Yankees pitcher Hideki
Irabu. ''I think he surprised Hideki,'' Sojo said, smiling.
Soriano struggled last season in spring training, fumbling
grounders, swinging awkwardly at breaking balls. But the
Yankees never dealt him, despite the fact that his name was
included constantly in trade discussions, and he has thrived
this spring. Sojo is sure Soriano possesses extreme confidence,
which surfaces from time to time in a joking manner. ''He'll
say, 'Let's see, how many hits will I get today?' '' Sojo said.
''He'll say the pitcher is in trouble.''
Derek Jeter, interestingly, often makes similar comments early
in games, saying aloud after a strikeout that it is only a
matter of time before the opposing pitcher is going to crumble.
Soriano is understated and not brash, like Jeter, teammates say.
If a group of players go out together, Soriano might tag along,
or might stay in, alone. Sojo believes Soriano is very
comfortable with himself.
He often sits in the clubhouse and chats breezily with
teammates in Spanish, about baseball and the weather and other
matters. He sometimes talks in the English that is slowly
overtaking his Japanese. Alfonso Soriano is learning how to
play second base, and there is a lot of discussion here about
change and the ability to adapt.
--
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My All Time Yankees:
C Yogi Berra, 1B Lou Gehrig, 2B Toni Lazzeri, 3B Graig Nettles,
SS Phil Rizzuto, OF Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle,
SP Whitey Ford, RP Mariano Rivera (SS runner up: Derek Jeter)
Manager Casey Stengel (Runner up: Joe Torre)
--
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◆ From: 160.39.32.162
※ 編輯: CCLu 來自: 160.39.32.162 (10/30 07:06)