Akinori Iwamura opens up about son

Things have changed for Tampa Bay Devil Rays player Akinori Iwamura since the birth of his five-week-old son, Taiki Iwamura, with wife Misaki. The third baseman recently opened up at MLB about his son.

Life is a lot different these days for my wife, Misaki, and me sinceTaiki has joined our lives. Our baby boy seems to get bigger every day.

During the night, Taiki wakes up every two or three hours, which hasn’tbeen the strain on me that it has been on Misaki. Since I need my sleepfor my job, I have been sleeping in a separate room from Misaki andTaiki. But I help with him during the day with all the stuff you dowith babies at this age, like changing diapers.

Misaki, Taiki and I will be leaving St. Petersburg to return to Japan acouple of days after the season is finished. We won’t be returninguntil January. Thus far, my first season in the Major Leagues has beena great experience. Being in the Major Leagues is something I’mthankful for every day.That’s all for now.

Source: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Comments

And why doesn’t his wife need sleep for HER job? Sorry, I just really don’t like when dads don’t help with babies during the night.

- Candace on August 20th, 2007

Ha, seriously. What working parent doesn’t need sleep for their job? Classic.

- madison on August 20th, 2007

This is a cultural thing. My mother is japanese and this is the way it is in Japan. My cousins got NO help from their husbands. They get help from other female relatives ie grandmothers, sisters, friends etc. Parenting is the mother’s “job”. The fact that he even changes diapers and helps out during the day makes him very progressive!

- Niki on August 20th, 2007

Great point Niki. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge (and I’m talking about myself given that I made a snarky comment above!) when there may be cultural differences at the root.

- madison on August 20th, 2007

Well, considering the fact that Aki is a multi-million dollar athlete, we can assume a few things:

1.) His wife doesn’t work, or works just to get out of the house.
2.) Athletic performance is much more prone to suffering due to any number of factors, including diet, exercise, and yes, sleep. No sports organization would tolerate paying millions to a player whose performance is suffering because he couldn’t find a solution to this situation. Baseball players play pretty much every day for 6 or 7 months, so exhaustion is already a concern.
3.) In any case, this is only during the actual season, and not a permanent situation.
4.) Do you think his wife minds, really? Would you mind having to take over the night-time responsibilities exclusively for 6 months if it meant that your husband could go on making the family a couple million dollars? Consider it a job, for which you make $7.7 million for 6 months of work. Sound fair enough?
5.) Yes, there’s a cultural difference.

- Christian on April 21st, 2009