Friday, February 29, 2008

"We both have trouble answering questions in English"

This won't be a regular thing, since a good tenth of the Internet is filled with Red Sox sites, but we thought it noteworthy that the Sox visited the White House on Wednesday and noticeably lifted the mood of our beleaguered President.

Boston Globe reporting:

But the star of the show quickly became Bush, the former owner of the Texas Rangers and fan-in-chief who was clearly enjoying the opportunity to mingle with ballplayers after more substantive meetings earlier in the day with the prime minister of the Czech Republic and a special envoy from the Organization of the Islamic Conference:

Singling out ace hurler Daisuke Matzuzaka, Bush made reference to the large group of Japanese reporters who were on hand, joking, "His press corps is bigger than mine." He then noted another similarity he said he shares with "Dice K": "We both have trouble answering questions in English."

The story goes on to report that those in attendance did their best to avoid questions about the Justice Department's investigation of possible perjury by former Yankee Roger Clemens. You have to know the Sox players were smiling on the inside, though.

POSTSCRIPT: Quotes like this -- from Don Orsillo of NESN -- vindicates the practice of writing articles about spring training (my bold):
"This is my eighth season coming up," said Orsillo. "I could never imagine that Red Sox Nation and the thirst for all things Red Sox could grow year in and year out, and I think it has. As a kid growing up in New England, there was great Sox loyalty at that point, but it has grown immensely and continues to grow. It's amazing that people want more. One of the new things we did this year was kind of a test run on [airing] the first workouts of spring training. It's the first of its kind in the major leagues, which is pretty amazing. When you think that fans would watch virtually two hours worth of drills . . . they did and they want more. I wouldn't be surprised if, moving forward, we did more of that. The thirst is great and growing as we speak."

POSTSCRIPT 2: Don't hold back now, Hank.

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