From TFA:

Once the Red Sox get their new spring training headquarters in Ft. Myers, part of the plan is to build an offseason strength-and-conditioning center that the players can use in the offseason.

Also, this gem (these two bullets were right next to each other):

• It's really comical to see the lengths agents will go to connect their clients to teams like the Red Sox and Yankees. If you see a name that doesn't make sense, odds are it's just an agent planting something.

• Would Chone Figgins make sense in left field if Jason Bay goes elsewhere or becomes hard to make a deal with?

someone who has been with the team for three years refers to his starting second baseman as “Pedroia”, not “Dustin” or “Pedy”. To me it’s a) cultural, b) he doesn’t like Dustin, or c) he doesn’t like Boston.

What an odd observation. My best childhood friend and I still call each other by our surnames, so it doesn't seem that strange to me.
As for Matsuzaka, what he needs is the proven ancient rememdy of ground up tiger penus and whale scrotum. Or is that the Chinese that partake in these delicacies?

On a random note, I find it odd that someone who has been with the team for three years refers to his starting second baseman as “Pedroia”, not “Dustin” or “Pedy”. To me it’s a) cultural, b) he doesn’t like Dustin, or c) he doesn’t like Boston.

In Japanese usage, the family name comes before what we would think of as our first name. In Japan, he'd be Pedroia Dustin. I read a lot of manga - in those, friends, even close friends, virtually always address each other by their family names, rather than their "first" names, and co-workers always do.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert - I don't speak Japanese, and I've never been to Japan, but from what I know of the culture, Dice-K is using perfectly normal language for a native Japanese speaker.

Nearly all cultures use surnames for colleagues; Britain used to (it doesn't now) and Croatia, where I worked for 4 years, always did, although usually with "Gospod" (Mr.) even if they'd been working together for 20 years.

You namby-pambys can write it off to cultural differences, but at least he could learn how to pronounce/spell his name. :-)

“(Dustin) Pedoria was the one that introduced me.”

Nearly all cultures use surnames for colleagues;

Until the fifties middle-class Sweden had the incredibly stuffy convention of using job title+surname in all conversation outside close friends and family. It was all "Would Head Engineer Johansson like some cognac in his coffee?" and the like, second person pronouns weren't used.

In Japanese usage, the family name comes before what we would think of as our first name. In Japan, he'd be Pedroia Dustin.

Yep. I should have remembered that.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert - I don't speak Japanese, and I've never been to Japan, but from what I know of the culture, Dice-K is using perfectly normal language for a native Japanese speaker.

In the office where I worked, all the 20-something engineers referred to and addressed each other using their family names, usually without a title. When -san or -kun popped out it seemed to be intended semi-ironically, unless some management type was around. When they came to our US first-name-only office, their use of each others personal names was every bit as forced and unnatural as the rest of their English small talk.

Ichiro's personal-name-only approach is much odder in Japan than it is in the US; IMO he's consciously doing it to stress the internationalness of his celebrity.

It would be pretty funny if he pronounced it "Pedoria".

Does he use a translator, or are those his words?

When I was a kid I was always annoyed by the brackets the newspapers put in to clarify sports figures' quotations when mentioning their teammates in passing, so I made a resolution, for when I'd talk to the press, to use full names whenever I referred to anyone I knew. Clearly this refusal to submit my words to brackets was what led to my never becoming a professional athlete.

In the Red Sox clubhouse, maybe "Pedy" is used to refer to someone else.

Dustin Pedroia's brother?

Back in the Stone Age when I was in college, all of our teachers addressed their students as "Mr." or "Miss." Never once by our first names. I've often wondered when that practice faded away.

Back in the Stone Age when I was in college, all of our teachers addressed their students as "Mr." or "Miss." Never once by our first names. I've often wondered when that practice faded away.

The 1920's.

Back in the Stone Age when I was in college, all of our teachers addressed their students as "Mr." or "Miss." Never once by our first names. I've often wondered when that practice faded away.


I did some uni study at Berkeley in the early 80's and they referred to you as Mr. or Miss then, so it's not that ancient...

I hate saying this so often, but I'm cautiously optimistic about Matsuzaka for next season.

Where I went to college everybody called each other by their first names, students and professors both.

At UNH they did. At UMD they don't. North/south?

My first thought on seeing "Pedoria" was Peoria. He's taking advice from the Cubs' minor league affiliate?

No wonder he wasn't any good last year.

Vaux: North, relatively close to UNH, unless you mean University of North Houston or something.

There are a wide variety of explanations.

1. Beyond the fact that Japanese often refer to each other by their family names, even after long association and becoming best of friends, even when they do use given names and nicknames they may use the family name when talking to third parties. Matsuzaka may very well call Pedroia "Dusty" when hanging out, but say "Pedroia-san" when talking to the media.

2. Even if Matsuzaka referred to Pedroia as "Pedy-kun" in the interview, the translator may have translated it as "Pedroia" to avoid confusion or embarassment. This happens more than you'd think.

3. Even if Matsuzaka referred to Pedroia as "Supaa Dasutii P-chan" in the interview, and this was translated thus, the reporter may have simply replaced it with the easier to understand "Pedroia" when writing the article. Sure, they often use brackets in such situations, but not always, particularly when cleaning up a quote of a translation. And Matsuzaka has a history of employing dodgy interpreters. (Well, the one time, at least.)

Ichiro's personal-name-only approach is much odder in Japan than it is in the US; IMO he's consciously doing it to stress the internationalness of his celebrity.

Ichiro became "Ichiro" long before he had any celebrity at all. His manager decided, at the start of his first full season, to register young turk "Suzuki Ichiro" as "Ichiro", and soon-to-retire veteran Sato Kazuhiro by his clubhouse nickname "Punch". At the time, Ichiro was completely unheralded, being a fourth (and final) round draft pick who'd hit well in the minors but hadn't done anything extraordinary with the parent club. Ichiro was extremely embarrassed by it in the beginning. But with the name change came success, and Ichiro's highly superstitious when it comes to baseball, so he wanted to keep this tradition when he came to MLB. He has mentioned that the intense media pressure accompanying the name has given him something of a dual-identity. At home, with friends and family, he's just "Suzuki Ichiro", but at the end of highly-regimented routine, when he walks onto the field, he becomes "Ichiro!".

Being known by one's first name only is certainly unusual in regular life, but not particularly unusual among celebrities. Director and comedian Kitano "Beat" Takeshi is more often than not simply referred to as "Takeshi", for example.