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Tanaka ‘happy to be a Yankee’
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The latest high-priced addition to the New York Yankees stood on the dais in front of a large news conference, put on his pinstriped jersey with No. 19 and smiled.
“Hello. My name is Masahiro Tanaka,” he said slowly in English. “I’m very happy to be a Yankee.”
After chartering a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for his trip from Tokyo to New York, the 25-year-old right-hander with the US$155 million, seven-year contract was presented on Tuesday not in the news conference room downstairs at Yankee Stadium, but in the Legends Suite Club, where the high rollers congregate on game days.
Yankees spokesman Jason Zillo concluded the team’s latest Pacific overture drew New York’s most-attended news conference since Hideki Matsui was introduced in January 2003.
Managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said obtaining Tanaka was worth the economic pain of exceeding the US$189 million luxury tax threshold New York had hoped to stay under. “We needed another starter, and when we do things, we try to do them right. And this guy, he’s tough. He’s got tremendous ability. We all know that. And US$189 (million) or not, we wanted a good quality starter, and we got it.”
New York, which also added Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran during the offseason, figures to have a big following in Japan. Tanaka joins pitcher Hiroki Kuroda and outfielder Ichiro Suzuki on the roster.
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