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Biography of Ochoa-san

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Biography of Ochoa-san
Hello.

I have enjoyed roaming around your site for the past couple of weeks, and today I logged in as an official user so that I might begin to contribute. In particular, I wanted to submit a brief biography of Alex Ochoa, who is currently playing for the Chunichi Dragons. Ochoa was never a star in the Major Leagues, but he was a player I admired for his skills and his ability to fulfill specific roles on his teams.

I'm glad to see that Ochoa is doing well in Japan. My biography of him is listed below. Also, on the leaderboard, he is listed only as "Alex," where other players' family names are listed. His name there should of course be "Ochoa."

[Profile added to Ochao's player page.]

Thanks so much for your excellent site. I hope this bio is useful to you!

- Samurai Gratz
Comments
Re: Biography of Ochoa-san
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Oct 2, 2003 3:07 PM | YBS Fan ]

Thank you. Great biography.

As for his registered name, it is registered as "Alex" in all official press releases and player guides. It also says Alex on the back of his uniform. It's like Ichiro is the only player (that I know of) who has his first name on his uniform in MLB.

The reason (that I heard - don't know if it's true or not) that his first name was used is that Ochoa sounds too close to ochokochoi, which means "clumsy." To avoid such an image, the Dragons requested to register him as Alex.

This is done fairly often with hard to pronounce foreign names, or names that might give a negative image. I remember Randy Ready went by his nickname "Spike" because Ready sounded too much like "Lady" when pronounced in Japanese.
Re: Biography of Ochoa-san
[ Author: Samurai Gratz | Posted: Oct 2, 2003 10:25 PM | HC Fan ]

Ha! What a great tidbit. Thanks - I had assumed it was just some kind of error in the script translation. Now Alex is just like Ichiro! (Well, kind of.)

Kattobase, Alex-san!
Re: Biography of Ochoa-san
[ Author: Guest: Gary Garland | Posted: Oct 3, 2003 5:55 PM ]

The ochokochoi story on Ochoa's name is correct. But also think about how close "Ochoa" is to "ochiru" ("to fall").
Re: Biography of Ochoa-san
[ Author: OchoaFan22 | Posted: Nov 1, 2003 5:48 AM ]

Great to read about Alex. I've known Alex since he played Class A ball for the Baltimore Orioles. He is as great of a person as he is a baseball player. It has been difficult to keep in touch with him as, not only has he been moving around yearly, I myself have moved a few times. I would love to be able to catch up with him, so if anyone knows the best way to attempt to contact him in Japan please let me know. I've seen the forum post on team contact, but as stated no e-mail address is available that I can see. Heck, who knows, Alex or Suzie (his wife) may visit this site and see my post. If so, Alex it's "Clem" shoot me an email!

Keep up the great work Alex.

Scott
Re: Biography of Ochoa-san
[ Author: Guest: George Steinbrennernot | Posted: Nov 7, 2003 10:06 AM ]

I didn't realize that Alex Ochoa played in Japan this year. I liked him when he was a Met and he had a fine year in Cincy. If he did well this year in NPB, then I feel even stronger that Benny A. can get the job done here as well. They are similar type players, although Alex plays better defense.
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