ボスは迷文家シリーズ |
二人の無責任な日本人大リーグ選手
モントリオール・エクスポズ伊良部無条件解雇
下は、モントリオール・エクスポズのオフィシャルサイトである。伊良部の怪我そしてアルコールをやめないこと、、等が書いてある。自己管理の悪さの結果ではなかろうか。伊良部がこんなリリースをされた裏には彼の態度の悪さもあったのではなかろうか。ヤンキーズ時代にシアトルにきて、日本のファンに酷い態度をとっていた。球団内で同じ態度だったら、良い時は重んじられても今回のように故障が続いて酒ばかりあびていたら、誰からも相手にされなくなる。そんな背景があっての無条件解雇だったのではなかろうか。しかし、これは伊良部に限ったことではない。シアトルに住む僕は、毎晩のように酒をあびてアソビ歩いているマリナーズの佐々木選手の悪い噂もあちこちで耳にする。イチローはマリナーズの契約の中に「佐々木の酒につきあわなくても良い」という項目をいれるべきだったとジョーク半分に語ったが、シアトル入りする前の彼の耳にも佐々木のアソビに関する噂が届いていたのだろう。一月ほど前、マリナーズの選手が頻繁に利用するレストランのオーナーの口から、佐々木はプロ選手なのに自己管理が悪いとの言葉を耳にした。球団は多額の契約金で選手のコンディションを買っているのだ。契約した選手は、コンディションを最高に保つ責任があると僕は思っている。佐々木は、勝ちゲームの最終回一度か二度投げれば済むので、コンディション作りは不要とでも思っているのだろうか。彼がポケをやる時は前夜の酒が残っているのに違いない。レストランで出会う他の選手達はビールを飲んでも小ビン一本ほどだ。彼らは選手生命を最高に保つことにかけてとてもマジメである。
小野沢昭志
2001年９月8日
Irabu given unconditional release
9/6/2001 4:16 pm ET
MONTREAL -- The Montreal Expos released Japanese hurler Hideki Irabu Thursday afternoon, effectively bidding sayonara to the pitcher who ended his career with the team with as many surgeries as he had wins. Irabu, who ended a week-long suspension without pay Wednesday that came on the heels of a reported drinking binge that landed him in the hospital on the night of Saturday, August 25, is now free to pursue opportunities with any Major League club. Should he fail to find employment elsewhere, the Expos will be responsible for covering the balance of his $2,500,000 contract that expires at the end of the season. Irabu was in his final year of a two-year deal with Montreal after having come to the Expos in December of 1999 from the Yankees in exchange for pitchers Jake Westbrook, Ted Lilly, and Christian Parker. The club had also held an option on Irabu for the 2002 season. Westbrook, who was sent to the Indians from New York as part of the David Justice deal last year, has been up and down with Cleveland as a starter in 2001, while Lilly is now pitching out of the Yankees' bullpen after getting several chances as the club's fifth starter. Parker is currently on New York's 60-day disabled list.
It's too bad," manager Jeff Torborg said of Irabu's release. "I'm sure [he experienced] an awful lot of frustration because he was never the star people expected him to be, especially after the way he started his career in the U.S." In 1997, Irabu came to the States after an All-Star career in Japan, yet refused to play for San Diego, the team that had won his rights, forcing the Padres to trade him to New York. After enjoying a moderate degree of success with the Yankees yet suffering the public ridicule of team owner George Steinbrenner when he failed to perform in the playoffs, Irabu came to Montreal with the expectations of emerging as a reliable third starter. Instead, he proved to be a disappointment of the highest order, missing a total of 128 days and 118 games in 2000 due to a pair of surgeries, one to remove torn cartilege from his right knee on May 31, 2000, and the second to remove loose bodies and a bone spur in his right elbow on August 15, 2000, after he had returned from the DL to make just one start. Irabu finished the year on the DL with a 2-5 record and a 7.24 ERA in 11 starts and 54.2 innings pitched. In 2001, Irabu arrived at Spring Training 40 pounds lighter, looking determined to put a miserable 2000 behind him. Once again, however, he would succumb to tendinitis in both his right knee and elbow, and would miss 68 days and 53 games before returning to the Expos' active roster on May 31. He would make just three starts on the season -- compiling an 0-2 record with a 4.86 ERA in 16 2/3 innings -- before returning to the DL June 14 with a right elbow strain.
Irabu never donned an Expos' uniform again. He missed 86 days and 76 games from June 14 through his release on Thursday. Though it was a foregone conclusion from the time of his second stint on the DL that the club would choose not to pick up Irabu's expensive 2002 option, manager Jeff Torborg had indicated he was considering using the pitcher out of the bullpen for the final month of the season once he was recalled from his injury rehabilitation assignment on September 1. Those plans changed, however, upon Irabu's actions of August 25. Scheduled to start with Triple-A Ottawa against the Buffalo Bisons in a Sunday matinee on the 26th, according to Japan's Kyodo News Service, Irabu reportedly went on a drinking binge and suffered a case of alcohol poisoning that required a trip to a local hospital for treatment. During his suspension, Irabu was recalled from his injury rehab nonetheless, clearing the way for his Thursday release.
It is, in many respects, the final chapter in a story that had a hopeful beginning yet an unfortunate end. "I just never saw the stuff that everyone was talking about," Torborg said. "I saw a guy who knew how to pitch, but I never saw the 97 mile-per-hour fastball or any of the other stuff he was supposed to have." "He could just never get going with all those injuries." J.S. Trzcienski is the Site Manager for montrealexpos.com
小野沢昭志