Tadano Kazuhito Brought up by Indians.

It's been a couple of days since Tadano has been called up, and I have yet to hear anything on T.V. here in the U.S. or anything in the newspapers or the Internet about Tadano and his background. I'm still waiting for ESPN to do a big feature story on Tadano - I'm sure they'll do a feature on him on SportsCenter sometime in the near future.

I guess the hype about the whole Tadano situation reached its peak in spring training when Tadano made his big confession. However, if he starts pitching well and people start to notice him I'm 100% sure that the U.S. media will dredge the whole story up again.

Tadano was sent down to AAA by the Indians today. I'm sure we'll see him again in the big leagues later this season.

Wow, talk about impressive. Tadano made his first start in the majors today and he was nothing short of spectacular. He allowed only 2 runs while striking out 10 in 7 innings of work against the Reds to pick up his first win in MLB. He even got a base hit and scored as the Indians beat the Reds 15-2.

A sketchy past or not, a lot of Major League teams as well as NPB teams are now looking foolish for passing on this kid.

Yeah, didn't he have an almost start th other day, too? If I recall correctly, the starter was injured out of the game very early on, whereupon Tadano came out and pitched well.

Yup. 6 innings, one run, 9Ks, no-decision.

Tadano was featured on NHK's MLB round-up last night on Saturday Sports. This is the first time I have seen him even mentioned on TV here in Japan, let alone shown pitching and being interviewed. [Admin: He was on the front page of Nikkan Sports this morning as well - the first time I'd ever seen him.] To put it into some perspective, the Matsuis and Ichiro got their normal spots (highlight scenes from their games and interviews), Tadano appeared similarly, but Nomo, Ishii, and Otsuka were relegated to "also ran" status, with just a small photo and written data.

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's kind of weird that there are so many "Kaz"s in the majors. There was Kaz[uhiro] Sasaki, and even without him, there's Kaz[uo] Matsui, Kaz[uhisa] Ishii, and now Kaz[uhito] Tadano in MLB. I guess if you want your son to grow up to be a big leaguer you should name him Kaz.

That's an interesting observation. Doing a quick query of my Player Meikan I come up with 55 different first names beginning with "Kaz."

+-------------------+----------------+----------+
| firstname         | firstnamekanji | count(*) |
+-------------------+----------------+----------+
| Kazuaki           | 和明           |        1 |
| Kazuaki           | 一彰           |        2 |
| Kazuaki           | 和彰           |        1 |
| Kazuharu          | 一玄           |        1 |
| Kazuhiko          | 一彦           |        2 |
| Kazuhiko          | 和彦           |        3 |
| Kazuhiro          | 和博           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 一弘           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 和宏           |        2 |
| Kazuhiro          | 和洋           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 一宏           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 一浩           |        2 |
| Kazuhiro          | 和大           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 和裕           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 和広           |        1 |
| Kazuhiro          | 主浩           |        1 |
| Kazuhisa          | 一久           |        1 |
| Kazuhisa          | 和久           |        2 |
| Kazuhito          | 一仁           |        1 |
| Kazuki            | 和希           |        1 |
| Kazuki            | 和樹           |        1 |
| Kazuki            | 一樹           |        2 |
| Kazuki (Kazuhiro) | 寿樹 (和広    |        1 |
| Kazumasa          | 和政           |        1 |
| Kazumasa          | 一正           |        1 |
| Kazumi            | 和巳           |        1 |
| Kazumi            | 一美           |        1 |
| Kazunari          | 一成           |        2 |
| Kazunori          | 一徳           |        1 |
| Kazunori          | 一範           |        1 |
| Kazunori          | 和範           |        1 |
| Kazunori          | 和典           |        1 |
| Kazuo             | 和男           |        2 |
| Kazuo             | 稼頭央         |        1 |
| Kazushi           | 和史           |        1 |
| Kazushige         | 一茂           |        1 |
| Kazutaka          | 和隆           |        1 |
| Kazutaka          | 一宇           |        1 |
| Kazuteru          | 和輝           |        1 |
| Kazuteru          | 一輝           |        1 |
| Kazuto            | 一人           |        2 |
| Kazutomo          | 和知           |        1 |
| Kazutoshi         | 和敏           |        1 |
| Kazutoshi         | 和利           |        1 |
| Kazutoshi         | 一紀           |        1 |
| Kazuya            | 和也           |        6 |
| Kazuya            | 和哉           |        2 |
| Kazuya            | 一也           |        1 |
| Kazuya            | 佳主也         |        1 |
| Kazuyoshi         | 和義           |        3 |
| Kazuyoshi         | 一喜           |        1 |
| Kazuyoshi         | 一義           |        3 |
| Kazuyuki          | 一幸           |        1 |
| Kazuyuki          | 和之           |        1 |
| Kazuyuki          | 和幸           |        5 |
+-------------------+----------------+----------+

Notice that all but a few begin with either "一" (one - often the used in the name of the first born male) or "和" (peace).

The Mets' Kazuo Matsui

I just finished reading a long article about Kazuhito Tadano in ESPN the Magazine (Jun 7th edition). It talks about how many of his Indians team mates have supported him publicly, and it even has one team mate from AAA, Buffalo 2nd baseman Brandon Phillips, quoted as saying, "If it is an issue, then somebody is going to have a problem with me... because it's wrong to bring that up. You have to be mature. If he's on the team, then he's like family. And you have to treat him so he's comfortable and the whole team is comfortable. And I think we are."

But at the same time, the article quotes Twins' outfielder Torii Hunter as saying, "What the h*** were you thinking? Why didn't you just do straight porn with a woman?" It certainly is a good point, albeit a little crude.

Yeah, Phillips is pretty cool. Saw him at a minor league game earlier last month and he gratefully signed all my 10 different cards on him. I normally don't hand players that many cards, but I missed watching him play 2 years ago and just never gave up the hope to see him. I guess he was in a good mood since his family was with him. He even told me he don't mind signing after I told him about missing him 2 years ago and have a web site dedicated to autographs.

And Hunter certainly has a point, but I hope everyone realizes that there has gotta be other gay players in the MLB. The league has 30 teams and more than 50 players suit up per team per season. That's 1,500+ players (different persons) we're talking about. There is no way Tadano is the only one, and I've heard that Tadano only did it because he needed money back in college. He'll let his pitching do the talking and he has said publicly that he doesn't mind bad fans attacking him because of it - because he don't speak English.

Sometime people just won't let it go. I still hear Michael Jordan and his gambling problem from more than 10 years ago.