Word: breiza
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...teams. Like many of the 16 Americans now playing beisuboru in Japan (league rules limit the number of foreign players to two per team), he had to be rechristened so that Japanese fans could pronounce his name. Today Don Lee Blasingame of Corinth, Miss., is known throughout Japan as Breiza ("the Blazer," a nickname he earned with the Cardinals for his speed). "Breiza sounds snappy," says one of the Hawks' front-office men, "and even seems to evoke a spiritually stirring acoustical effect...
...Blazer nearly flamed out in 1969 when, after averaging .275 for three seasons in Japan, the Hawks released him. But then Katsuya Nomura was named player-manager and insisted that Blasingame be signed as head coach. "Breiza is the best teacher in Japanese baseball," says Nomura, who is too busy catching every day to concern himself with strategy. "All the play-by play directions are in his hands...
...Doubleday's lexicon: an out is outo, a hit is hitto, a homer is homma and a batter is a batta. Blasin game also mastered such words as massugu (straight), tsuyoku (strongly), yukkuri (slowly) and a lot of what might be called body Japanese. "A tiny gesture from Breiza," explains Hawk Out fielder Shuzo Aono, "and we more or less know what he is trying to tell...
...Blasingame also had to familiarize himself with the idio syncrasies of the Japanese game. It was most difficult for him to understand why fielders smile broadly after mak ing errors. "At first," he says, "I was appalled. No more - that's their way of concealing embarrassment." Says Nomura: "Breiza is so patient that he is almost Japanese...