Tadano added: “I'm not gay. I’d like to clear that fact up right now.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with it...

“You could tell he was nervous,” said Sizemore, a top prospect who lived with Tadano this winter. “But I don't think it changed anybody’s opinion of him. After it was said and done, nobody thought anything more of it. He’s a great guy and a great pitcher.”

...must fight ...urge ...to make ...really ...really ...bad joke. ...must ...keep from ...putting foot ...in mouth.

Tadano knows he may face fan abuse in major league parks such as Yankee Stadium, where heckling the visitors is part of the pageantry.

He joked that he's ready for it.

“I don't understand English, so it doesn't really matter,” he said.

More baseball fun from the people who gave you Chief Wahoo.