A cover story like no other

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- It was madness.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, hidden behind some netting, was throwing for the first time as a member of the Red Sox. Every reporter there had to see it, had to write about it, had to beam the images back home to a salivating public that will hang on every pitch, every word, every move Matsuzaka makes.

And if a few people got hit in the head with a camera in the process, so be it.

While the furor over Matsuzaka's movements abated as spring training wore on, it should all be returning for that first start in Fenway Park, against Ichiro Suzuki and the Mariners, and for that first start against Hideki Matsui and the Yankees. But, while the Red Sox have dug into the undersized Fenway press box to carve out extra space for the influx of media, and are making plans to add auxiliary space for photographers, they're not the only ones affected by the wave of Japanese media.

There are the media members themselves.

Faced with a whole new world of coverage -- and a time difference that makes communication with family difficult -- both the Red Sox and Japanese media are working toward a set of compromises, with the press gaining work areas and access and, in turn, acceding when shooed out of the clubhouse by Japanese media relations expert Sachiyo Sekiguchi.

It's a work in progress, especially when considering that, as Red Sox vice president of media relations John Blake said, "numbers are a little higher than we originally anticipated."

"I've got finite space in Boston," said Blake, who issued about 80-85 spring training credentials to Japanese media (out of 120 requests). "The hope is I can give every paper or every written print outlet, sports dailies, daily papers, and the two wire services, one seat in the box. Photographers are probably the biggest issue. We spent a lot of time in the last few weeks looking at that. There's not a lot you can do to change that because of the way the park is."

An upper-level photo position will be built on the left-field side, accommodating Japanese photographers who want to get the optimal view of Matsuzaka. (Though this should make it slightly more difficult to photograph lefthander Hideki Okajima).

But there's much that hasn't been decided, such as how often Matsuzaka will speak to the media. Blake estimated that Matsuzaka will talk after starts and on one day in between. That will be worked out based on the pitcher's preferences, almost certainly taking place outside the clubhouse.

Despite having to write about the pitcher every day, the Japanese media seem pleased with the Red Sox' efforts. Because, in Japan, they get a whole lot less.

"In Japan we can't contact with the players," said Naofumi Murakami of the Asahi Shimbun, who studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is fluent in English. "We can't go in the locker room. All we can do is just wait, wait for the player coming out. Sometimes we have to wait for players two or three hours in the parking lot because we can't contact with them.

"The PR guy gives us some comment in the game, and that's all we have. We have to run a story with that comment. Then after the game we have to wait for them. It's very hard."

Yet in the Sox' spring training clubhouse, the Japanese media have been given a warm reception. They say the rest of the Red Sox players have been friendly, trying out Japanese phrases, willing to welcome them. And even the Japanese players, perhaps motivated to hear their own language, have compared notes on American food and experiences, even inviting the media to dinner one night, according to Yoshiki Sasaki of the Hochi Shimbun.

But, for all that, the experience hasn't been easy. While some of the contingent consists of writers such as Hideki Okuda, who moved to the United States with his family in 1990 as a freelance journalist and now covers baseball for Sports Nippon, many of have come straight from Japan, leaving family and friends behind, and won't return home for a month or two.

"The language and the time difference are the biggest adjustments for me," Sasaki wrote in an e-mail. "Because I don't speak English very well, I have hard time to communicate with other players here in English. The time difference between Japan and US forces me to have lack of sleep every day since I must wait until around midnight to discuss today's story with my bosses in Japan on the phone. Then, usually I take a short nap and start writing the article in very early in the morning. It's not easy being a Japanese reporter in US."

Some, like Kazufumi Kurahashi of Sports Nippon, stay up until 4 a.m. to call their family, meet a 6 a.m. deadline, then at 8 head to the Red Sox spring training clubhouse. Some, like Sasaki, stay in touch by writing notes via cellphone.

"I have to adjust," said Murakami, who has a 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in Tokyo. "I miss my family. This is the first time I left my family for a long time. Before my daughter going to kindergarten, almost 9 a.m., I call to them, just say hello, what they do, what I did. What kind of food I ate in US. I take a picture of the stadium or some food and see them what kind of place I'm working. They don't understand."