This barely warrants mentioning, but I’ve been following the evolution of a comment made by Rangers reliever Otsuka Akinori, regarding Koske Fukudome’s upcoming decision on which MLB team to sign with.

I’ll start off with the end result of the comment Otsuka made, which is with Rangers beat writer (and a very good one at that), Jamey Newberg, who in a piece called What’s the opposite of “Yosshaa”? (not sure I get the title) calls out Otsuka for “recommending” choosing San Diego over Texas.

And yet I could have made it through the weekend just fine without seeing this in a San Diego Union-Tribune article: “If [Kosuke] Fukudome chooses the Padres, he must adapt to an extreme pitcher’s ballpark, yet will draw less scrutiny than he would in Chicago. Former Padres reliever Akinori Otsuka, who retained a San Diego residence after the club traded him to Texas, recommended the Padres to Fukudome.”

Disappointing. Really disappointing.

Now, it’s hard to know exactly what Otsuka said, but this next quote by Padres GM Kevin Towers would indicate that what Otsuka said was something to the effect that San Diego might be an easy environment for an Asian player new to the U.S. to adapt to. From a Union-Tribune piece by Tom Krasovic:

Former Padres reliever Akinori Otsuka, who retained a San Diego residence after the club traded him to Texas, recommended the Padres to Fukudome. “For the Asian player coming to a new country, San Diego is a pretty comfortable environment,” Towers said.

I don’t know, makes sense to me. I think I’m more (possbily over-) sensitive to this sort of thing because I live in Asia, but Otsuka telling Fukudome that living in San Diego might be easier than adapting to life in Arlington, Texas, is not necessarily “recommending” Fukudome to sign with the Padres instead of his own team.

I’m guessing Otsuka would love to have Fukudome come and play in Texas, if for no other reason than the fact that he’s the lone Asian player on the team playing in the middle of Texas. I’m also guessing the Rangers themselves are totally ignorant of this concept.

Naturally agent Joe Urbon, who represents both Fukudome and Otsuka, was very quick to protect his own personal intrests in the matter known:

Urbon said geography won’t be a factor.

At any rate the Rangers signed Milton Bradley for $5-mil today. My guess is they weren’t serious contenders for Fukudome in the first place and that what Otsuka said had no bearing on any of it.

However, the Padres annoucing today that they’ll be donning those Desert-Storm-Camo-Uniforms…you know, the ones that look like vomit…more frequently in 2008 might just be enough to get Fukudome to sign…

with the Cubs.