You have Tsuyoshi Shinjo hovering around .300 for the New York Mets, and Mac Suzuki throwing 95 mph again in Kansas City, and Masato Yoshii pitching well in Montreal. And so on. It makes you think hard about Kazuo Matsui, the brilliant Japanese shortstop who steals bases like Lou Brock for the Seibu Lions. Or Kazuhisa Ishii, a left-handed pitcher for the Yakult Swallows who has been clocked at 97 mph. For a long time, American baseball people would write off these Japanese players, much like they wrote off the Negro League players back in the 1930s.
Some people still write off both.
You kind of have to prove it to people here. Well, now people are seeing it. And maybe they're believing it. Some hold out. Mostly, though, there is celebration.