(h/t to Joy of Sox)
Some excerpts from the story, as translated by friend of the blog Daigo Fujiwara, a Globe staff graphic designer.
"Early on in January 2009, I hurt my right inner thigh. I consider movement around my hip joint a crucial part of my pitching motion. It happened during my exercise to strengthen my hip joint that I incorporated into training since 2008. I may have pushed myself just a little too hard. It wasn't the pain that killed me, but it was the regrets and guilt that filled my mind. It was the time to start building up for the season, but I hurt myself because of my own doing.
"I had to make a decision whether this injury was serious enough to withdraw from the World Baseball Classic. But my body was functioning well, and by taking anti-inflammatory medicine I can tolerate the pain. So I continued training, but actually it was even hard just to jog. .
Matsuzaka mentions later that Red Sox trainers didn't know he was injured because he has his own training regimen. The fallout from all this, as all Sox fans know, is he had a subpar season due to the adjustment in his mechanics. An adjustment that also led to his shoulder injury in May.
Well, that's just fan-fucking-tastic, Dice.
As redsock from Joy of Sox points out, Theo Epstein spoke with Tony Massorati
One of the things we actually tell our players in the minor leagues is you need to be more honest with us about when you're hurting ... With the way we built this team, I would rather have a right fielder who plays at a very high level who plays in 130 games rather than someone who plays hurt, plays at a lesser level, and ends up playing 155...Now I have respect for the guy who guts it out all the time, but sometimes they can cross the line and be fool-hardy.
Not hard to figure out whether Dice crossed the line or not.
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