Darvish to the Marlins!?!
Surprising news out of Japan today — apparently the Marlins are close to a deal that would land them Yu Darvish. The Marlins’ management team has found a way to work around the posting system –Â offering Darvish’s current team, the Nippon Ham Fighters, an ownership stake in the team. Â Nippon Ham has granted the Marlins an exclusive negotiating window with Darvish and if they can agree to terms, the Nippon Ham will release him and take over their reportedly significant share of the Marlins franchise.
A person familiar with the negotiations was quoted as saying, “it’s the beginning of April and the Marlins almost fooled themselves that they were ready to compete with the Phillies and Mets with the roster they have. Getting Darvish should push them over the top.” Added Japanese analyst Shigatsu Jodan, “this gives the company the opportunity to keep Darvish in the Nippon Ham family and should open up a great new market in south Florida for the company’s ham, pork and bacon products.” Darvish’s agent Aberilu Furu issued a firm “no comment”.
I certainly didn’t see this one coming.
If you’ve selected this text and the hints are too subtle, check the date.
01/04/2009 at 8:33 am Permalink
This is an April Fool’s joke, right?
01/04/2009 at 8:41 am Permalink
Haha…if this is true, I will be amazed.
01/04/2009 at 8:42 am Permalink
Nice one. You should have made it the Pirates though. I would have enjoyed that much more. GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!
01/04/2009 at 8:44 am Permalink
I think April Fool’s jokes seriously undermine your blog’s credibility.
01/04/2009 at 8:44 am Permalink
April Fools!
01/04/2009 at 8:54 am Permalink
Dear NPB Tracker:
You certainly didn’t see this one coming either, but you will need to have a better April Fools joke in order to fool me.
Sincerely,
Frank’s Field of Dreams.
P.S. Actually I would’ve believe it more (50/50) if you had used Iwakuma, Aoki, or Fujikawa’s name, but Darvish already mentioned that he wants to get 200 wins in Japan and have absolutely no interest of coming over.
01/04/2009 at 9:42 am Permalink
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.
01/04/2009 at 10:00 am Permalink
I don’t see this ending well. He has no desire to play for the MLB (supposedly) and would now be forced to move to the states. That would screw with his mind.
01/04/2009 at 10:20 am Permalink
Is this an April Fool’s joke?
01/04/2009 at 10:41 am Permalink
April Fools joke of course. This would have leaked in the States already. In fact, the Marlins just completed a trade for Hayden Penn that isn’t official…the teams just agreed to it today and the paperwork is not even complete. So this one definitely would have leaked. But, still fun to think about.
01/04/2009 at 11:00 am Permalink
YES!!!! Great April Fool’s Day! I love it, well devised.
01/04/2009 at 11:39 am Permalink
!?!
where did you get the info? a quick googling in both languages yielded nil results…
but if anyone was gonna find loopholes, i guess that would’ve been the marlins..
01/04/2009 at 11:55 am Permalink
Simon gets a pass because it’s April 2 in Japan already.
Happy April Fool’s Day!
01/04/2009 at 2:40 pm Permalink
Not funny, I love the Fish…you killed me a little inside…
01/04/2009 at 4:35 pm Permalink
Patrick,
I think Simon is the only one that got fooled. Make sure you tell him that it was just an April Fool’s joke. He might report it in his blog.
01/04/2009 at 5:06 pm Permalink
I know for a fact that others were fooled.
01/04/2009 at 8:21 pm Permalink
Haha, fooled by the international dateline!
02/04/2009 at 11:35 am Permalink
ya got me