How Nakajima Learned to be Cool

» 19 December 2012 » In nichibei »

A couple of years before Hiroyuki Nakajima became a Twitter sensation for calling Billy Beane “sexy and cool” (which is a bit of a liberal translation, but that’s a different story), Nakaji expressed his fun-loving side with a celebratory high-five routine with Seibu teammate Dee Brown.

Here we see Brown teaching his pupil:

And here Nakaji uses it in a game situation (skip to about 0:50):

I suspect he’ll get along quite well with the other A’s.

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  1. Patrick
    Patrick
    19/12/2012 at 6:45 pm Permalink

    And yes, the title is awful, but it was the best I could come up with.

  2. Patrick
    Westbaystars
    19/12/2012 at 9:32 pm Permalink

    Today’s lead MLB story in Nikkan Sports (paper edition) had the headline, 「GMがSexy&Coolだから」。 Then the text quoted Nakajima as saying, 「ビリー・ビーンがカッコいいから(笑い)。」(“Because Billy Bean looks good.”) That, in turn, got translated by his translator as, “Billy Bean is extremely sexy and cool,” causing the entire press conference to explode in laughter.

    I think he’s going to have a good time there.

  3. Patrick
    Scott K
    20/12/2012 at 9:05 am Permalink

    Nice … I am hoping that he can hit in the MLB. I did notice that his swing is different than a lot of players from Japan. It seems like he is actually trying to “drive” the ball as opposed to “slapping” the ball. With his personality, any success at the plate will make him really popular in the SF Bay Area.

  4. Patrick
    motoi
    20/12/2012 at 10:47 am Permalink

    あ～あ山井打たれちゃった。
    Listened your　comments on the radio show..Hope things work out for him with the A’s. Great analysis. Enjoyed a lot!

  5. Patrick
    Patrick
    21/12/2012 at 9:34 am Permalink

    Motoi-san, yep, it’s great to have a Japanese player in Oakland. I’m looking forward to watching him and I hope he beats my expectations.