| 06 August 2009
From Extra Bases:
[Yesterday] afternoon in the Red Sox clubhouse, Daisuke Matsuzaka prepared himself to speak with Boston media for the first time since his critical comments about the Red Sox became public last week. A pack of reporters huddled around him and his translator, Masa Hoshino. They spoke Japanese back and forth, and then Hoshino addressed the reporters.
"He wanted to say a few things to the fans, especially, in English, so he's going to give it a shot," Hoshino explained. "And he apologizes beforehand if it's hard to pick up. You can always come back to me for clarification."
With that, Matsuzaka composed himself and, for the first time since his Red Sox tenure began, spoke to a group of media in English.
"I want to clear up a few things," Matsuzaka said, pausing to swallow between sentences. "It was not my intention to make the meeting public or to criticize the Red Sox. The person who wrote the article is my old, old friend. I still trust her and this has never happened before. Training, no problem. No problem with the Red Sox. We will work it all out. I want to thank all my fans for their support and I can't wait to see all of you when I go back to Fenway Park. Thank you."
Dice-K went on to talk about his current rehab program and his hopes for contributing at the big league level by September.
Bottom Line: I'm a big Dice-K fan and I would love nothing more than to see him dominate in 3 or 4 starts in September. Wil he be able to start and win a playoff game? That's tough to say, but if Brad Penny, Clay Buchholz or John Smoltz don't improve drastically over the next 6 weeks, Dice-K could prove to be our secret weapon in October.
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