Typical responses for why a player signed with a certain team include location, fan base, money, talent on the current roster, etc. But this is a new one.
New Oakland shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima said in his introductory news conference that he signed with the Athletics because general manager Billy Beane is “extremely sexy and cool,” according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Perhaps he never met Beane in person, and expected him to look like the guy who played him in Moneyball. It’s unclear whether Nakajima also thinks his general manger is married to Angelina Jolie, knows the first rule of “Fight Club” and ages backward.
Beane returned the compliment to Nakajima during his portion of the news conference. Nakajima signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract on Monday. The Japanese shortstop was a seven-time all star in Nippon Professional Baseball and hit 13 home runs with a .833 OPS last season with Saitama Seibu.
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Check out Nakajima’s humor in the video below.
Thumbnail via Flickr/boomer-44
