Hideki Okajima's Silence Sparking A Media Controversy
by Ben Buchanan on Jul 25, 2010 8:40 PM EDT
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PrintHideki Okajima has never been one to answer questions after a poor outing, which has certainly not endeared him to the Boston media. But a lot can be forgiven when you're playing setup man on a championship winning team.
Not so much when you're sporting an ERA approaching six on what could be the first Red Sox team to sell in years.
After emphatically blowing a save against the Seattle Mariners Sunday, Hideki Okajima went to the locker room, and once again refused to answer questions. But he's no longer performing, and the media is certainly not taking it.
Okajima so far refusing to take questions. Unprofessional to say the least.
As has been his cowardly habit for most of his 3 years in Boston when he doesn't pitch well, Hideki Okajima refuses to answer questions.
True professionalism on the part of Okajima: Refusing to answer questions after today's game. Got to be accountable.
Adrian Beltre isn't sure what Hideki Okajima was thinking on Kotchman bunt. Unfortunately, Okajima not willing to explain himself.
As Lauber mentions, the media aren't the only ones who want answers. Amalie Benjamin backs him up:
To be clear, players care when teammates don't talk. Beltre asked us today what Oki had told us about the play. It matters.
Now, I don't know what exactly the media and/or Beltre are really expecting Okajima to do. Will a big mea culpa really make everyone feel better? We all know who screwed up the game. We all expect him to do just that everytime he enters in relief.
This whole "no answers" controversy is just a symptom of Okajima's complete failure to perform. The problem isn't that he's not talking, it's that he's being allowed to pitch and have something to talk about. If nothing else, perhaps the Boston media can do some real good for this team by making Francona push him into the deep recesses of the pen (or to free agency) with their storied venom.
Rock on, media. Rock on.
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wow
That place was for diehard sports fans. I only follow my team when they're in the playoffs" - Homer Simpson
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by bestbostonsports on Jul 25, 2010 9:01 PM EDT reply actions
It could quite possibly be a cultural thing
Various cultures react differently to failure. While many Americans are brought up on an attitude of accepting your mistakes and a “you’ll be great next time” attitude, Japan is notorious for the stress it puts citizens to succeed or you could be ostracized from society for the shame you placed on your family/friends/nation. Then again that’s only a theory and it could be something else entirely, just my 2 cents, hope it works out for the best.
completely the opposite
their culture (from what I understand) stresses honor and taking responsibility for one’s own actions more than anything else.
He won't answer questions?
UNACCEPTABLE! RELEASE HIM!
well ok, maybe now I’m just looking for reasons to release him.
this is news?
It’s been dead obvious from all accounts since 2007 (and, apparently, before) that Okajima is an introvert who doesn’t like talking to anybody much—even in Japanese—much less to the media when he’s blown a game.
I’ll be blunt and let you know that the last part of your article is why I’m almost completely turned off from Boston Red Sox fandom these days.
Care to elaborate?
Realistically and objectively, he’s a huge negative who should not be playing on this team.
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Jul 25, 2010 9:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Man, when was the last time I was rooting for the Boston media?
It’s that bad.
DFA Beckett
by South Coast Ghost on Jul 25, 2010 10:07 PM EDT reply actions
You know what? @#$% the media.
Hey, Oki. You @#$%ed up tonight and have been crap all season. Can ya tell me about it in broken English or through a translator?
Oki has been a black hole all season, but we’re talking about media here. They’re a step or two above cockroaches. Why should Oki give a shit about what the media thinks?
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
To be fair, I think this is the only statement I would find acceptable...
* Okajima’s translator comes to the podium, shuffles some papers and coughs nervously *
Ladies and gentleman of the press, * winks wolfishly at Amalie Benjamin * Mr. Okajima will not be available for comments today, but has asked me to read a prepared statement:
Dear Boston Sports Fans:
Today, as in many days in the recent past, I sucked terribly at baseball – unable to support my team, its starting pitchers or its fans. I’m a continuing embarrassment to the memory of the reliever I was in 2007, and a blight upon the Red Sox and upon the great sport of baseball itself. I can neither ask for nor accept your forgiveness, as my disgraceful, gutless goat-fucking bonfire of a pitching performance is beyond forgiveness. I took the mound and made even the dickless Mariners – the most pathetic offensive club in all of baseballl – look like a fucking juiced-up Ruth, Williams, Yaz, DiMaggio, Roy Hobbs All-Star hit bonanza.
As penance, my agent has negotiated an immediate trade to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in exchange for Rafael Soriano. Don’t ask how this happened, just know that it involved a substantial bribe to Andrew Friedman and a promise that his family would be unharmed and released to him after the season ends. As a condition of my trade, I will be placed in every game where Tampa Bay has a late lead and pitch until that lead is gone. Based on recently experience, perhaps two-thirds of an inning. I will room with David Price on the road – in the same bed – hoping that my bone-numbing stomach emptying badness will rub off on him. I may also attempt to bone Matt Garza, if the opportunity arises.
I know that the Red Sox, their fans and the city of Boston can never truly forgive me, but I hope – in some small way – this can serve as a token of my sincere and heartfelt sorrow over my consistent yak-blowing disgraces on the pitching mound.
Good night, and God bless.
Wait 'til next/this year?
"Laser show. So relax."
by nuthinboutnuthin on Jul 25, 2010 10:50 PM EDT reply actions
This team's pathetic.
Lets get this shit over with, sell off, and prepare for next year.
Sell off?
and prepare for next year don’t really work together well. When teams sell off, they’re looking to build up for a couple years ahead. Trade who? Beltre? Well as of right now, he looks like the best bet at third base for the next few years. Ortiz? Who’s going to take a DH with that contract who spends the first month or two of every season looking like Cerrano when a curve ball is thrown his way, we’re never quite sure he’ll ever pull out of it. VMart? I can’t think of a better guy to be our catcher for the next couple of years. Cameron is the only one we could realistically sell given our minor league depth with Kalish knocking on the door step and even then? Who wants a hurt CF who has struggled to find the long ball swing that’s kept him as a starter all this time? Next down the line I guess would be Drew, I could see someone giving us quite a bit for Drew if we offered him.
But it all comes down to this.
This team isn’t done yet.
We’re 5 games behind the Rays, that isn’t too far with over 60 games left. The offense is obviously going to struggle until VMart and Pedrioa come back, they are two of our best hitters who have been replaced with bad bats. Our SPs have been pretty good, good enough to keep us in these games when the offense isn’t firing. The only weak point remains the bullpen and the trade deadline is just around the corner here. We’re one or two arms away from having a decent pen, assuming that Bowden comes back in favor of Oki like… immediately. The bullpen, once the injured players come back, if the difference between post-season and early golf for us.
"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.
The bullpen would be the difference if it were an even match.
Instead, it’s the difference between a CHANCE at the postseason and early golf. We’re playing with a handicap, essentially.
As for Martinez and Beltre, well, they’re both FA. There’s no guarantee they’ll stay with us if we keep them, nor a guarantee they won’t return if we deal them. The real question is how much we can get from them to decide whether or not it’s worth trading our slight chance without a pen for the difference between draft picks in next year’s deep draft (from presumably resigning them during the offseason and giving up picks due to Type-A) and the value of whoever we’d get in a deal.
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Jul 26, 2010 1:21 AM EDT up reply actions
it would be absurd to trade those guys if we had any thought we might re-sign them
as they’re both Type A. That’s a big draft pick difference (and the fact that they’d cost other teams draft picks is a big bargaining advatage).
Isn’t it easier to just make a move or two in the pen and compete anyways?
If the twins would just give up Ramos for Beltre, I’d say sell, sell, sell, but I’m not sure I would other than that. It seems like so little is needed to be competetive that it’s just ridiculous to throw in the towell with this much baseball left to go.
Deep draft
Remember, a few gems always fall the Sox (and Yankees) way becuse of the signability issues. Also, the Sox don’t have any tradeable difference makers, i.e. Cliff Lee, that could command a top prospect. Beltre is the obvious possible cantidate, but who would play third the rest of the season? Lowrie? Lowell? There would be a revolt among players and fans. And what would we possibly get for him? Some mid-level prospect at best.
It’s all just silly.
I forgot about that.
Isn’t the 2011 draft class supposed to be particularly deep/strong? Or am I making something up here. If our free agents leave, at the very least we’ll be setting up with a lot of high draft picks.
Beltre and Martinez are both difference makers
And if Theo thinks that selling off gives us the best chance to win in the larger scheme of things, then he absolutely will.
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Jul 26, 2010 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions
And the only team the Type-A incentive will help us against, it's the one that we trade him to.
If we think that the guys we would get in a trade are worth more than the guys we would get with a first and second round draft pick, that really won’t be much of an issue.
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Jul 26, 2010 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions
+1,000,000
The Red Sox will NOT be sellers! Rouge makes a couple of excellent points, but there are a couple of other reasons the Sox are not sellers –
- There are a number of great competitors on this team (Pedroia, Youk, Papps, several starters) that you don’t want to kick in the teeth by giving up on the season.
- The fans. This is where Luccino comes in; The Sox are selling a premium product and it is priced accordingly. With the team still in the hunt, and the short-term future still bright, the Sox upper management would never allow an all-out capitulation.
I fully expect Theo to make a move or two at the trade deadline. Maybe small moves for bullpen and OF help.
Japanese pitchers must have a horrible relationw ithe boston media
wasn;t there an incident with Dice-K too?
The Accountability Comments from the Reporters Made Me Roll My Eyes
I do not want to see Oki pitching any more games for the Sox and I fear he may be done entirely. It makes me very sad to say that, because he has been one of my favorites and I have pulled for him to turn it around to the point of being irrational. Having said that, I am not really interested to know what Oki might say to the media, or what any of the reporters quoted in the post think about the situation.
The reporters are pissed because he won’t give them easy soundbites and let them take photos of him hanging his head and looking lost. That’s understandable. They are reporters, after all. I have to say this, though: Declining to talk to reporters is NOT the same thing as refusing to take responsibility for his performance. If they are implying that on purpose, they are impugning his character (no surprise there). If they actually believe it, they’re pretty naïve about professional sports and about their own jobs.
Oki hasn’t committed a crime or betrayed the public trust or put anyone in danger. He’s sucked at the game of baseball. "Professionalism" to me means he is accountable to the organization, to his teammates, and to himself. If anyone in the organization, including another player, wants to know what Oki has to say about his performance, they should ask him. "Accountablity" does not mean a player has to sit down with reporters and give them a statement so they can warp it and use it to sell ads.
Oki has been an awful pitcher lately, but I do not believe he owes these reporters a single word. They are coming across to me as an entitled, pompous little clique with no perspective whatsoever. I wish they’d spare us the pretense of having fans’ best interests at heart, because I find it insulting.
Baseball is reassuring. It makes me feel as if the world is not going to blow up. ~Sharon Olds
I dunno
I do agree to a point that it’s blown way out of proportion and the media is just pissed at him- but really, I do believe that in this day and age, part of a player’s job is accountability to the fans and to make media appearances when it is warranted. They make so much money because they’re public figures, and the media attention is a part of that.
I was a little over the top
But only a little.
I understand what you’re saying, and I can kinda-sorta agree with the idea that they should make media appearances when warranted. The problem is: Who decides when it is absolutely warranted? Every fan, every player, and every reporter is going to have their own ideas about how to decide that.
I don’t agree with the statement that they make so much money because they’re public figures. I think they’re more celebrities that actual public figures, and there is a real diffence between the two that goes beyond semantics. They’re celebrities because they play a sport that’s followed by millions of people. The money comes from the fact that baseball is a business that generates a ridiculous amount of money and the players are fortunate enough to have a very lucrative collective bargaining situation. This probably sounds more argumentative that I’m intending it to be. I understand where you’re coming from and I view it as a legitimate opinion — it’s just that I don’t happen to agree with it.
The reason I think it’s important to explain myself in such detail is because my comments on accountability above turn on the fact that players are not public figures in the same way that someone who is elected or paid with public money is a public figure, and it seems to me that the reporters are expecting that level of accountability. That and the fact that fans are not shareholders in the clubs, and we shouldn’t ever fool ourselves into believing that the clubs or players owe us that level of accountability. I personally hold players to the same standard I hold movie stars. If an actor really blows in a big-budget movie, I don’t expect him to be accountable to me and meet with the press to explain the problem just because I paid for the ticket and bought the t-shirt. The situation here is analogous, I think.
The things that got me worked up enough to write all this were the guy calling Oki a coward, which I think is totally unfair because his avoidance of the media really doesn’t seem to be based on performance — it just seems to be a thing that he does as much as as possible. That and the Beltre quote, which I thought was presented in the media stories without adequate context..
Baseball is reassuring. It makes me feel as if the world is not going to blow up. ~Sharon Olds
"You Gotta Have Wa"
by Robert Whiting is an incredible baseball book, detailing how Japan looks at baseball as opposed to us. Some of the stories are incredible. Hint: they take it a lot more seriously than others, so any strange reaction to the press from Dice-K or Oki doesn’t surprise me.
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