Of course, being on this side of the ocean I only heard from my colleagues back in Japan that some people did think he was a traitor to Japanese baseball, but on the other hand, there were a few people that said “Hey, go for it.” If he can make it, it’d be great for both American and Japanese baseball.

But…I remember that he debuted in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park – no longer Candlestick Park but – the first game he pitched, it was May two-thousand…1995 and there were two-hundred Japanese accredited media. Now, I heard this from Maria, who’s still with the San Francisco Giants, and she said that she declined a couple dozen others. So that was how interested all of Japan was. That game…there was no win, no loss for him. He pitched a few innings, but he was able to strike out a few Giants.