A-O-Kei!!!

Imagine my excitement when today's programming on the YES network was suddenly interrupted for a newsflash! Did they solve the mystery of the West Side gas-like odor? Not yet, but the Yankees were about to introduce a freshly-shorn Kei Igawa at the Stadium.

The guy looked pretty solid at a somewhat awkward press conference in the Bronx this afternoon. His control of the English language is a work in progress, falling somewhere in between Michael Kay and Randy Levine. More importantly, he seemed as calm as a cucumber.

Far more interesting was the appearance of Hideki Irabu's former translator, the strangely androgynous Kota Ishijima. Somebody in the YES control room made the mistake of doing a close-up on him for the first translated question-- that mistake wasn't repeated for the remainder of the program. I was praying that a rogue reporter might ask Ishijima a direct question about his firing by George Steinbrenner 9 years ago and subsequent hiring by the Old Homestead steakhouse downtown.

Apparently Hideki Matsui was invited to the press conference but politely declined. No big deal, but why did they feel the need to open the event by telling us this? More on this developing story later...