This story originally appeared in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2014.
TOKYO — MLB clubhouses are full of bravado and machoism, and so they are not the most diplomatically correct places in the world. Insults are freely exchanged as are practical jokes.
There is, however, a line that you should not cross, and New York Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen discovered that recently when he made a crude joke to Daisuke Matsuzaka’s interpreter, Jeff Cutler, a 30-year-old American who is half Japanese and has Asian features. Warthen then suddenly found himself the target of criticism in the American media.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Robert Whiting's Japan to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.