On the lighter side of things, the Boston Red Sox have apparently come to an agreement with Daisuke Matsuzaka, arguably the #1 pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball. This was apparently of such importance that it came up during the State Dept briefing on Six-Party talks regarding North Korea, at which Asst. SecState Christopher Hill started asking reporters what they knew once one of them gave him a tidbit of info (excerpt below the fold).
H/T SOSH Red Sox discussion board (registration required during high traffic periods).
After some fairly bland stuff such as “the purpose is not to talk, the purpose is to come to an agreement and have some effect on the ground,” Hill suddenly turns to the question of Matsuzaka:
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: How’s the Matsuzaka afternoon going today? Do we know?
QUESTION: Not very well.
QUESTION: Are you going to —
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: It’s going well today?
QUESTION: I heard they’re flying to Boston.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Matsuzaka is coming to Boston?
QUESTION: Apparently.
QUESTION: He says there’s a lot of —
QUESTION: No, no, no, no.
QUESTION: No, I thought it fell through with the Red Sox.
QUESTION: No, no. He’s holding out for a six-party agreement. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Really?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m really sorry about doing this, but it’s very important. He’s going to Boston?
QUESTION: Apparently.
QUESTION: He’s only got a wire report.
QUESTION: Which is important.
QUESTION: Every time you go to these parties, you —
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Parties — it’s not a party. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: It’s going to be a big party for you.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You’ve been going to parties; I’ve been going to six-party talks. (Laughter.)
The briefing then returned to the topic of the North Korean nuclear issue, just as abruptly as it left.
The reason Hill and lots of other people care about Matsuzaka is that he appears to be one of the best pitchers of his generation; if the preliminary reports are true, the Red Sox are spending at least $103 million to acquire him, an unheard of sum for a pitcher yet to face MLB hitters. Many video clips of Matsuzaka performances can be found on Youtube. He was the MVP of the first World Baseball Classic (sort of a world cup for baseball), held earlier this year.