No, Don Wakamatsu doesn’t speak Japanese and he mostly grew up in Hayward, California. I’m not sure the Mariners deserve to be called mavericks for hiring him, but, as steps go, this is a pretty nice one. Wakamatsu is expected to be named manager of the Seattle Mariners tomorrow.

Wakamatsu was most recently the A’s bench coach. He was with the Rangers as a bench coach and 3rd base coach the three years prior to that. He is the son of a third-generation Japanese-American father (who was born in the Tule Lake internment camp during World War II) and an Irish-American mother.

There’s an interesting story in the Seattle Times that talks a little about Wakamatsu’s relationship with his grandparents and their past.

Wakamatsu has recently reached out to his grandparents — living in Hood River, Ore. — to learn all he could about their ordeal.

“I asked them about the camps and living in the barracks,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle last year. “They said, ‘This house is made of barracks.’ I said, ‘What?’ When they were let out of the camp, former inmates were allowed to buy the buildings, so my grandparents bought two, put them together and added windows.

“How ironic — they had 48 hours to relocate, they were imprisoned for years and then they chose to live the rest of their lives in the same buildings. And they’d never talked about it before. I’ve only heard my grandparents speak a couple of sentences in Japanese in my life because they didn’t want to speak it when they got out of camp.”

There also seems to be some chatter about how the Mariners now have two guys with “crazy” names — Wakamatsu and new general manager Jack Zduriencik. Warning: Scrabble jokes ahead.

Wakamatsu is a popular surname in Japan. There’s also a city and several townships that use the name.

Wakamatsu was the last pick in the 1984 draft, but decided to return to Arizona State University, where he played with Barry Bonds. In 1985, he was drafted in the 11th round by the Reds. He was a minor league manager for AA Erie (2000), AA El Paso (1999) and Rookie-Level Peoria (1997). His minor league managerial record is 215-248.