Dice-K vs Okie Dokie by David Lawton

First Nomo had burst on the scene

With his corkscrewed forkball for the Dodgers

Then Ichiro became a star in Seattle

As a high flying five tool leadoff hitter

And suddenly the race was on

To find the next bankable Japanese player

It wasn’t just a search for a difference maker in the playoffs

It was that burgeoning Japanese market

The press coverage and corporate tie-ins

That led to a bidding war for the services

Of the next top-of-the-rotation ace from the Land of the Rising Sun,

Daisuke Matsusaka, shrewdly nicknamed Dice-K

Four teams submitted offers through a posting system

With the Red Sox coming out on top with a 51 million dollar figure

Winning them the right to negotiate a contract on the team’s private jet

With a blowhard agent intent on a shakedown

Which would get them a lot of unnecessarily deep counts, walks,

And an injury from the World Baseball Classic Dice-K hid from the team

Which would squander much of his tenure

But during the same time

The Bosox also brought in another Japanese player

Who had some success as a lefty reliever

With an unorthodox delivery copied from a manga character

Many fans figured he was brought in to be Dice-K’s caddy

To make him feel more at home

When the writers asked him how it felt to go unrecognized

With all the Dice-K hype

Hideki Okajima said:

            I’m willing to be a hero in the dark

Okie Dokie made the All-Star Team that year as a set-up guy

That’s value for the dollar.