Darvish' First Day of Spring Training - East Idaho News
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Darvish’ First Day of Spring Training

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Getty S 11812 Yu%20Darvish?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1329897409498KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images(SURPRISE, Ariz.) — Let the Darvish mania begin.  The Texas Rangers arrived at Spring Training on Tuesday along with their Japanese star pitcher Yu Darvish in Arizona.

As Darvish approached the mound for his first session, the Japanese media flashed their cameras but were not able to get a word with him.

Catcher Luis Martinez was the first to get a look at the Rangers’ new star on the mound who threw 30 pitches.

“I was excited and happy to catch him,” said Martinez, who admitted that it was “a bit overwhelming,” too. “He had a bunch of pitches, great stuff and stayed down in the zone. He threw curveballs, sliders, changeup, splits. He did really well.”

One person who did get to chat with Darvish was pitcher Derek Holland. 

“He’s practicing it,” Holland said of Darvish’s English vocabulary. “He said, ‘Please teach me English.’ I told him I’m not the best guy to be teaching English. We were joking. He was getting a feel for it.”

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