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As reported Monday by multiple online sources, Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer flew to Dallas to meet with free-agent righthander Yu Darvish.
Here’s what Darvish had to say about the meeting on Twitter:
1.今日は報道にもあったようにカブスの方達とミーティングしてきました。非常にいいミーティングでした。
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) December 19, 2017
自分なりに英語を次のステップに持って行きたくて通訳なしで3時間半ミーティングしました^_^ 最初は慣れてない相手と話す+緊張から言葉に詰まって焦りまくったけど途中からは大丈夫でした。
2.ただ質問が多かった分発言の機会が多く、かなり脳を使ったためここ10年で一番疲れたんじゃないかってぐらい疲れました。。
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) December 19, 2017
また明日も英語頑張ります(^^)
やっぱりビビってできないって引っ込むより、チャレンジした方が上達速いですね。 ドジャースに行って気づけました(^^)
BCB reader Osaka, who speaks fluent Japanese, provided this translation of those tweets in the comments to yesterday’s post on this topic, and I repost them here so they’re easier to find:
1. As has been reported, I had a meeting with people from the Cubs today. It was an excellent meeting. Because I want to do the best I can at taking my English to the next level, I did the 3.5 hour meeting without an interpreter (^_^) At first I was lost for words from nervousness and speaking with people I’m not used to, but from partway through it went smoothly.
2. Still, I had a lot of occasion to speak since they had a lot of questions, so I used my brain a lot, and it made me so tired that I think I might be the most tired I’ve been in the last ten years. I’ll do my best at English again tomorrow (^^) It’s really true that instead of holding back out of fear and thinking you can’t do it, you get better more quickly by challenging yourself. That’s something I noticed after going to the Dodgers (^^)
First, I’m sure you’ll note the irony of Darvish having a 3½-hour meeting with Cubs executives entirely in English, then sending out two long tweets about that meeting entirely in Japanese.
Still, I give Darvish a lot of credit for challenging himself, as he notes in the second tweet. It shows he’s always willing to improve himself, at least in speaking English, and I’d assume that carries over into improving himself as a pitcher.
The second tweet (“I’ll do my best at English again tomorrow”) implies that Darvish and the two Cubs executives are meeting again. This, plus the length of the first meeting, would imply to me that the Cubs are quite serious in their pursuit of Darvish, who would be an excellent addition to the rotation. It would seem to be a positive sign that Darvish called the meeting “excellent.”
The more I think about this, the more I’m in favor of the Cubs signing Darvish, of course if the price is right.