Hiram Bocachica Interview at Marinerds

Deanna at the Marinerds blog has a neat interview with Hiram Bocachica of the Pacific League leading Saitama Seibu Lions. As she writes, the Lions don’t get much coverage in the English media (or even the Japanese media for that matter), so this is nice to see. And Bocachica is quietly having a solid season (.240/.330/.550, 15HR 32RBI in 57 games) hidden in the shadows of Olympic bound G.G. Sato (.946 OPS) and Hiroyuki Nakajima (.985 OPS), as well as Takeya Nakamura (27HR) and Craig Brazell (25HR) chasing the homerun title.

Here’s a couple of tidbits that I found interesting.

How does it feel to come to a championship team like this?

Well, I did a bit of research before I signed, heard a lot about the team. You know, what players came out of this team, guys like [Daisuke] Matsuzaka and [Kazuo] Matsui, and I think that’s one of the reasons I signed with them. I knew it was going to be a pretty good team and was going to compete, so that helped to make my decision a lot easier.

I didn’t know how much foreign players looked into new teams overseas before signing with them, so this was interesting.

I was going to ask about the fans, actually. Do you think it’s good or bad with all the cheering?

It’s pretty good! They don’t care about what the score is, they always cheer, they never boo you. They don’t look at the bad stuff, they only think of the good stuff, and I think that’s something the American fans could learn from the fans here in Japan.

…

You’ve been doing great. You’re really popular.

I’m doing all right. The fans are great, and like I told you, they only look at the things that you do positive, and that helps a LOT.

For some players, fan reactions do matter (take notes, fans in New York and Philly  😛 ). So the constant cheering in Japan is good for someone like Bocachica.

I’m sure in both cases above, they depend on the player, but I found these things interesting coming straight from a player’s mouth.