Igarashi in his NY garb.
Former Swallows reliever Ryota Igarashi is in Port St. Lucie with the Mets, where he was interviewed for a piece about him in the New York Daily News yesterday.
Among the article’s gems:
During his 11-year career with the Yakult Swallows, Igarashi would wear a WWE-style mask and take on the persona of “Swallows Man.” A photo of him in character is on his Japanese-language Web site.
“When it was cold, I would practice with the mask on,” he says through the interpreter.
Igarashi then deadpans in his limited English: “New York Mets Man. New face.”
And more important:
With his Yakult team struggling last year, 200 fans assembled outside the team’s clubhouse, demanding the manager resign. Igarashi faced the mob and defused the tense situation.“I apologized. ‘We have the same feeling together. I understand how you feel,’” Igarashi recalls saying.
The same feeling that Takada should have been fired and still should be fired because he’s an incompetent ass? That’s the interpretation I like. Ah, the good old days when more and more people joined us in booing our own manager every game. As it stands, we’re stuck in the same quagmire: a boob leading a team with promise to the land of mediocrity and bad decisions in which he is king.
And now without the dreamiest guy on the team.
