“Hi everyone, my name is Yusei Kikuchi of the Seattle Mariners.”
On Thursday morning at T-Mobile Park, Kikuchi (“key-koo-chee”), a standout left-handed pitcher in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League for the last 8 seasons, introduced himself to Mariners fans — in English. Over the course of a 42-minute news conference, the 27-year-old southpaw answered at least half of the questions in English.
The news conference followed the Mariners announcement on Wednesday afternoon that the club had signed the left-hander to a four-year contract.
His opening statement was impressive enough, but he went on.