John Farrell, Masahiro Tanaka support interpreters after Jerry Remy's comments

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NEW YORK — Sox manager John Farrell and Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka on Wednesday stood by the need for translators to make mound visits, a topic of conversation because of Jerry Remy’s insensitive comments during the Red Sox telecast a night earlier.

“Having been in that position and dealt with players that, I only knew certain words, I think an interpreter is needed,” said Farrell, a former pitching coach who spoke to Japanese players in game. “I think Major League Baseball made the rule in 2013 because of the number of pitchers coming from Japan, the number of players coming from Japan. 

“Whether it was with Daisuke (Matsuzaka) to Hideki Okajima to guys that were on our pitching staff, I would have liked to have an interpreter around pre-2013. We were able to have an interpreter during bullpen sessions, so while trying to learn Japanese – which is a pretty tall challenge – you can learn single words… or objects or numbers. But when you start talking concepts, let’s face it, communication with players is priority No. 1. So, to be clear, the interpreter is needed.”

Tanaka said essentially the same thing.

"I don’t know why they came up, so it’s really hard for me to comment on it,” Tanaka said through a translator. “But I think little nuances could get lost in the process of trying to communicate, especially when you don’t know the language. I think the MLB rule right now is to allow for translator to go out there, so I'm I guess taking advantage of that."

Remy and NESN apologized Wednesday for the Sox broadcaster’s comments. In a conversation about a Yankees mound visit with Tanaka, Remy said that baseball language should be learned.

”Learn baseball language,” Remy said. “You know, learn. It's pretty simple. You break it down pretty easy between pitching coach and pitcher after a long period of time."

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