Hey Boston, now that you have a Japanese player, it might help if you knew a little bit about Japanese culture. I'm not from Japan nor am I Japanese, but I grew up with Japanese neighbors, studied Japanese in elementary school and have had a long fascination with Japanese baseball.

The first thing to know is that you shouldn't have to worry much about the ethic of your new pitcher, Diasuke Matsuzaka. Like the company is all-important to Japanese workers, the team is all-important to Japanese players. The success of the team reflects well on them. It's like going to Harvard or BU. The students may or may not add to the reputation of the school, but the benefit greatly from the reputation. Japanese are the same. When the team is respected as being good, they are satisfied. Matsuzaka will almost certainly put the team before himself. Just look at Ichiro--sure he came over and had a reputation as being flashy or whatnot, but in the end, his game is totally geared towards getting on base--unless the bases have runners, then he switches up and tried to drive the ball.

Next, many Japanese learn English in school, but it's very much like kids in America learning Spanish. It's not safe to assume Matsuzaka knows fluent English--even if you've heard him use some in press conferences. Japanese society is concerned with properness and it wouldn't be proper to go to America to play baseball and not learn one stitch of English. That would be rude and impolite. The effort is much more important--speaking broken English is better than not even trying. Therefore, if you ever have a chance to meet Matsuzaka, you can say the following phrase (broken down phoenetically): Ego-ga, wakathe-mas-ka. That just means, do you speak English. There is a weird blend in the middle of the wakathemaska part. The 'the' is really more of a D sound that seems squished nearly into the way people from England say "the". Hopefully he'll say yes and you can continue in English. As I said, the effort is all-important, so even if he speaks fluent English, he'll appreciate the fact that you tried to speak a little Japanese.

Finally, since we Americans have already rounded off his first name to sound like "Dice K" it made me think of somthing from my youth. The "Dice" automatically flashes me to old performances by Andrew Dice Clay. If one of you Sox fans doesn't have the creativity to fashion a studded leather jacket that spells out Dice Man on the back and wear it every time he pitches, then you are forever out of the baseball fraternity. Sure, people will make dice or start bringing fuzzy dashboard dice or whatever, but get out your damn glue gun and get busy. Three months is plent of time to make yourself a Dice Man jacket. Also, Fenway PA guy, I hope you're reading, every time Matsuzaka strikes someone out, you had better play a clip from Dice Clay, like the familiar "shaddup!" or the ever-famous, "OH!" The rest of the baseball world can't do it, Boston. He's your pitcher now.