Eagle-Tribune Blogs: Burt Talks Sports

It was the Red Sox version of the Ryder Cup, Japan vs. USA.

Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and interpreter Jeff Yamaguchi, a teaching pro in his native Japan, went up against Red Sox pitchers Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield on the golf course last week.

Where was this historic golf matchup played? In Canada, of course.

The twosomes did battle in Toronto with Matsuzaka and Yamaguchi winning, according to Yamaguchi.

“We played well,” he said.

Yamaguchi gave a quick critique of the Sox pitchers:

Wakefield: “He’s solid all the way around. He’s a four handicap. He plays very well and is very steady.”

Beckett: “He hits the ball a long way, but he was wild. He hits the ball pretty well.”

Dice-K: “He’s between a 10 and 12 handicap. He’s a pretty good golfer. He likes to play.”

As for the future Japan-USA matchup, Yamaguchi is all for it.

“Let’s just say it was very competitive on both sides,” he said. “We have to give them a rematch. We haven’t set it up yet. And we haven’t officially given our tournament a name. Maybe call it the Dice-K Cup?”

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Tigers manager Jim Leyland on a few Red Sox related issues:

Jonathan Papelbon as closer: “I agree with that move. He’s a great closer. He really is. When you have a guy like that who seems to thrive in those situations, you want him finishing off games. Just look at the Yankees and (Mariano) Rivera … If you start blowing a few saves in a row it can really hurt the confidence of a team.”

Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis: “I like him. He’s a tough, hard-nosed ball player. He seems to cause a lot of teams headaches.”

The Yankees: “Don’t count them out. They will be around, trust me. They have too much talent in that lineup. They have pitching problems, but they usually get them fixed. We don’t play them until August.”

Sox early success: “They don’t have a weakness right now. They can win a lot of different ways. Obviously, their starting pitching is great. But they can win with their bats, too.

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 Red Sox centerfielder Coco Crisp, a former amateur boxer, said he was able to see the Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight two weekends ago when the Sox were in Minnesota.

“I thought it was a great fight,” Crisp said. “It was two very smart fighters. Mayweather fought a smart fight. He kept away from De La Hoya. He knew that if they got in the middle of the ring De La Hoya probably would have knocked him out. Some people thought it was boring, but not me.”

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 In case anyone was wondering (other than my 10-year-old son) why Dice-K used a light tan glove on Tuesday night rather than the red glove he has been using since he started here, there was no rhyme or reason to it, apparently.

“There is no superstition,” Dice-K said through his interpeter. “I just picked it, for no reason.” 

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Each week I will have tidbit called “The last time the Red Sox …”

Had a player steal home?

Jose Offerman, Aug. 30, 1999

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