M's Sign Johjima

A massive signing for the Mariners. They were rather poor at the catcher position last year; Johjima will come in and settle that issue quite nicely. It also doesn't hurt the M's relations with Japanese fans.

And I have to say this again - thank you very much Kenji. You are a true Hawks legend.

Johjima was signed to a deal worth $16.5 million over 3 years. This was a great signing by the M's, and settled the catcher position nicely. [Full Story - MLB]

Good luck to him. And, as someone who works with language, I'll be really interested in how he gets on in such a communication-intensive position.

How did he deal with foreign pitchers with the Hawks? Can't be that different in the States, right?

I hope that we can see him get a good defensive and offensive plays with the Mariners. Especially a game where Ichiro throws back the ball from outfield and Johjima tags out the runner in home plate.

Anyway Johjima should "gambatte"!

I believe he is the first Japanese cather signed to the major leagues. The language barrier has been a big topic associated with his transition from the NPB to the MLB. I am not too familiar with the MLB, but have there been catchers from foreign countries in the past who have struggled in the MLB due to their limited grasp of English?

Many of the Latin players in the 1960s had limited grasp of English. MLB did not have intensive English language instruction for the Spanish speaking players until the late 1970s. Manny Sanguillen was the catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates during their championship years.

Jojima and Otsuka's passports are probably both spelt without the "h" because that's proper Hepburn format.

Call me naive, but since Johjima had dealt with English speaking pitchers with the Hawks, he may have a little tough time at first, but I don't think language is as big of deal as some people like to make out to be.

I think the bigger issue is to adjust to new pitchers (for him to hit) and learning a whole new league of hitters (to lead pitchers).

I hope he does well. (Even though I am a Red Sox fan.)

I spoke with the Mariners' Asia Pacific Scout. He mentioned exactly what everyone else is mentioning, Johjima has worked with many foreign pitchers while catching for the Hawks with little to no problems. In other words, why will he now have a problem?

There's a good article about Jojima on ESPN.com today.

I wonder why Jojima decided to spell his name Johjima. I know this topic has been covered on this website before, but it really irritates me to see the unnecessary "h" in there. Tokyo is not Tohkyoh, Kyoto is not Kyohto, and Ichiro is not Ichiroh.

Otsuka and Ohka. Seems to depend on the person.

It's not just Johjima. Japanese baseball uses the "h" more often than not. Like Ohnishi or Saitoh.

As far as I'm concerned, tomato tomatoh.

What this means to me is that more teams are getting their information from here than from the mainstream press.

The mainstream press, as mentioned elsewhere, is very consistent in transliterating Japanese words and names using, I believe, the Hepburn conventions. On the plus side, you don't get strange spellings like Tohkyoh. On the down side, you can't tell if "Ono" is "Big-Field" (大野) or "Little-Field" (小野). The only exception they seem to make is for Sadaharu Oh (not Sadaharu O).

On this site, though, I use the often inconsistent conventions that NPB uses on the back of the players' jerseys. The English press bothers me a great deal writing the names in a way that is different than what I see on the field, so I stick to what I see. The names you see in the Player Meikan here match the spellings on the uniforms.

Anyway, as this site tends to provide more useful information on players than the mainstream English press, scouts are using this site as a resource more and more. And when they write down a name, it's got the player's uniform name - not the name used by the mainstream English press. Unless a player specifically asks to drop the 'h', I have a feeling that you'll see it appear more and more on players in the future in North America as this site and the data I provide become the de facto Pro Yakyu data source for scouts.

Oh isn't a Japanese name.

Oh is the Japanese pronunciation of the Kanji 王, meaning "King." The Chinese pronunciation is "Wan."

Johjima with his first HR off Colon! Nice shot by Kenji.

- The English press bothers me a great deal writing the names in a way that is different than what I see on the field

Quite right; and on a more basic level: we have to assume that the player has agreed that his name is spelled as written on his uniform, otherwise it would be spelled differently. So, if that's the way his name is spelled, how dare anyone dictate otherwise?

Kenji's 2nd homer in his 2nd MLB game!

Yeah... I was joking that I need to attend every home Mariners game so he'll hit a home run at all of them!

Johjima was hanging out in the bullpen at Safeco Field last night before the game, just throwing a baseball against a wall while waiting for Mariners starting pitcher Joel Pineiro to finish long-tossing so they could warm up. I took a whole bunch of pictures from behind the bullpen of Johjima, Pineiro, and Lackey.

Also, the "Johjima Dog" at a hot dog place down the street from Safeco which names hot dogs after players each year, is a smoked Italian chicken dog. No, I really have absolutely no idea why. Ichiro's is German sausage.

The Safeco boards, playing off the Mariners' "Sodo Mojo" slogan, put up "MOJOHJIMA" after his RBI single in the 8th inning.

Nice pictures.