NPB Bullet Points: Four Milestones Reached

» 14 May 2011 » In npb »

In the last week or so, we’ve seen a near-handful of individual milestones reached… at least. Actually, it feels like I’m leaving something out. Anyway, here are the four I picked up on.

  • Yomiuri veteran Michihiro Ogasawara notched his 2000th career hit last week. Our own Ken Dick summarized the game in which he reached the milestone.
  • Yakult lefty Masanori Ishikawa recorded his 100th career win in style with 8.2 innings of shutout ball over Yokohama.Ishikawa commented, “it’s not a number that is won by an individual’s strength. My family supported me at times when I struggled.”
  • Softbank captain Hiroki Kokubo reached 400 career home runs on the 12th. I leave the reporting in the capable hands of John Gibson.
  • Two days later, Kokubo’s teammate, veteran suketto Alex Cabrera cranked out his 350th NPB home run. Cabu reached the mark in 1169 games, the fastest pace ever. Here’s my translation of Cabrera’s remarks, along with the original Japanese.

“This is the result of 11 years of hard work, so I’m feeling happy. I’m very happy. When I came to Japan, the first home run I hit was with the Lions. And today our opponent was the Lions. It feels like coming full circle*. I want to hit a lot more home runs for everyone.

(Commenting on the length of time it took to hit the last home run, pointing to him self and speaking Japanese) ‘I suck!’ This morning I chicken pot pie(?)* that I made myself, so I guess it was thanks to that.”

「１１年間、一生懸命やってきた結果なので、うれしく思っています。とても幸せです。日本に来た時にライオンズで第１号を打ちました。そして今日の相手も ライオンズでした。不思議な巡り合わせを感じます。これからもたくさんのホームランをみなさんのために打ちたいと思います。
（残り１本から時間がかかったことについて、自身を指差し日本語で）『ヘタクソ！』。今朝、チキンを包んだパイを自分で作って食べたんだけど、そのおかげかな（笑）」

* The bilingual members of my audience might have noticed that I took a few liberties with my translation, which I have denoted with asterisks. If anyone is inclined to answer, how would you translate 不思議な巡り合わせ or チキンを包んだパイ? And while we’re at it, how about conveying the humor indicated by（笑）? I always struggle with that one.

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  1. Patrick
    pip
    14/05/2011 at 10:51 pm Permalink

    Alex Cabrera cranked out his 350th NPB home run.*1

    _______________________________________
    * Alex Cabrera was named in the Mitchell Report.

  2. Patrick
    Billy D
    15/05/2011 at 12:24 am Permalink

    pip, did the Diet of Japan summoned him to a “court of hearing”? LOL

    Show me evidence of Cabu cheating in NPB, or even better: Cabu ruining baseball. Or else: Give it a rest!

  3. Patrick
    pip
    15/05/2011 at 12:58 am Permalink

    billy, i`m very sorry if i offended you.
    it was just hard for me to believe that he never took performance enhancing drugs, or the positive effects of HGH he took pre-2001 are completely gone by 2002.

    “In September 2001, a clubhouse employee with the Arizona Diamondbacks found a package with “a bottle of anabolic steroids (Winstrol) and several hundred (diet) pills” that had been mailed to the Diamondbacks stadium and addressed to Cabrera. Arizona General Manager Joe Joe Garagiola, Jr. reported the incident to the Commissioner’s Office. By the time the DEA confirmed the bottle contained anabolic steroids, Cabrera’s contract had been sold to a Japanese Team.”

    – Mitchell Report Page 94

  4. Patrick
    passerby
    15/05/2011 at 9:07 am Permalink

    A strange coincidence/twist of fate?

  5. Patrick
    Yakamashii
    17/05/2011 at 4:35 am Permalink

    Hard to know without seeing the pie. I’d have translated it as:

    “I made myself a chicken pie this morning, maybe that was it,” he said with a chuckle.

    不思議な巡り合わせ is a strange twist of fate.

    He didn’t say this in Japanese, did he? Translations of interpretations are risky business.

  6. Patrick
    Kyle
    18/05/2011 at 1:37 am Permalink

    Off subject, but I just realized that Carlos Rosa of the Marines, is going by “Carlos.” I almost vomited. Am I wrong, is that just somehow seem very toolish?

    On subject: I love watching Ishikawa pithch. Not exactly sure why.

  7. Patrick
    Michael Westbay
    18/05/2011 at 1:39 am Permalink

    I saw the interview and it was an odd combination of English and Spanish, like all of his interviews. My wife speaks both English and Spanish natively, and she can’t figure out what he’s saying at all.

    I think that the news source you got this from had a translator re-do the translation, as I don’t think that this is quite how the interpreter translated it to Japanese on the spot. Cabrera mentioned the Lions at up to five times during the hero interview, whereas this has it dropped to the significant two times. I don’t envy the task of translators and/or interpreters. But the Japanese version is a very simplified version of the original.