With the Boston Red Sox having signed a pair of Japanese pitchers this off-season – including Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will cost the team $103 million over six years – it comes as little surprise today to learn that Boston.com (a.k.a. The Boston Globe) has agreed to share content with Go-RedSox.com, a Japanese-language fan site.
From the Globe’s story: “Under the agreement, excerpts of Major League Baseball coverage from The Boston Globe, Boston.com and the Boston Dirt Dogs fan site will be translated and posted on Go-RedSox.com for Japanese-language readers worldwide. The new relationship begins immediately, with links between both sites.”
Red Sox principal owner John Henry was recently interviewed on WEEI radio’s “The Big Show” and pooh-poohed the idea of Matsuzaka’s astronomical signing costs being recouped in part through international deals such as this one. So it’s worth noting that the Red Sox are owned in part by The New York Times Co., which owns the Boston Globe.
Details of the deal were not announced. It’s difficult to imagine an arrangement of this nature being very lucrative for the Globe/Times/Red Sox, but when you’re trying to justify shelling out more than $100 million for a single ballplayer, I believe it’s fair to say that every little bit helps.
