It’s May, so you know what that means: we gotta talk about Asians in Baseball! (Because that’s what our podcast is about...obviously.)
First up, we discuss AAPI Heritage Month - Naomi and Scott went to see the As in their final season in Oakland, and the OG OG Masanori Murakami was also in the Bay, watching the Dodgers and Giants.
Apparently we have a new weekly segment: Asians on the IL. While we did get some guys back, several guys went on. What the hell is going on around here?!
Then, in position player news: Jahmai Jones hits his first career home run and is hugely celebrated by his Yankees teammates, Stuart Fairchild smacks an inside-the-parker, and Connor Wong is in a League of His Own gets both the first and last out of the game catching Nationals stealing bases.
Pitchers are all over the place this week. Go Woo Suk aka “Suk-Go” is sent to Miami as part of the Luis Arraez trade, Sean Manaea has a strong start v the Phillies only for the Mets to blow the lead (but Orion Kerkering got the W), and Shota Imanaga stays atop the pitching charts with a 5-0 record and a 0.96 ERA.
Lastly, Ohtani wears the World’s Worst Suit to the Blue Diamond Gala, hams it up with Dave Roberts and a sports car, and, oh yeah, he also hit .524 and was MLB NL Player of the Week (but we were so distracted by his terrible suit we almost missed his stats).
Michael Clair’s profile on Masanori Murakami: https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/masanori-murakami-first-japanese-player-in-mlb
The Yankees love Jahmai Jones: https://tinyurl.com/43yxdvbj
NY Post story about Volpe and his mom: https://nypost.com/2024/05/12/us-news/yankees-star-anthony-volpe-attributes-his-early-mlb-success-to-selfless-mom-on-mothers-day/
Stuart Fairchild turns on the rocket blasters: https://www.mlb.com/video/erik-miller-in-play-run-s-to-stuart-fairchild
