The Toronto Blue Jays may not have made the MLB playoff this year, but that doesn’t mean one of the team’s past fan favourites didn’t get some love amidst another team’s celebrations.
As the Chicago White Sox were enjoying a champagne-soaked party in their locker room after punching their post-season ticket on Thursday, the team’s star rookie took a moment to subtly shout out a Toronto cult hero.
During an interview in the clubhouse, Munetaka Murakami — Chicago’s Japanese rookie slugger — dropped a reference to ex-Blue Jays infielder Munenori Kawasaki.
Amidst the chaos of the celebrations, Murakami was asked through interpreter Kenzo Yagi by a reporter how many champagne bottles had been popped in celebration, to which the first baseman shouted “one hundred!”
He was then asked, “What does it mean to be able to celebrate with this team?”
Murakami replied with an emphatic shout of “I AM JAPANESE!”
The answer prompted laughs and wild cheers from his teammates watching – but die-hard Blue Jays certainly got the reference.
Where did ‘I AM JAPANESE!’ come from?
Munenori Kawasaki, a cult hero in Toronto in the 2010s, yelled out the same line on May 26, 2013.
The infielder was being interviewed by Sportsnet after delivering a game-winning walk-off two-run double against the Baltimore Orioles when he grabbed the microphone and yelled, “Thank you very much! My name is Munenori Kawasaki! I am from Japan. I am JAPANEEESE!”
Kawasaki endeared himself to fans with several memorable quotes in interviews, including “monkeys never cramp” and, during a Blue Jays playoff celebration, “Bush party! Let’s go!”
Who taught Kawasaki to speak English?
Mark DeRosa, a former Blue Jay turned studio analyst with the MLB Network, shared the story behind Kawasaki’s infamous on-field interview on Friday.
DeRosa, who was a pinch-runner, scored on Kawasaki’s walk-off double.
While showing the clip of the hit, DeRosa explained that the team thought that Kawasaki wouldn’t be able to do the post-game interview because of his English.
“They don’t think that Mune’s capable of doing the interview because of the language barrier,” DeRosa said. “So they asked me … to do the post-game interview.”
“And I’m like ‘I don’t know what I’m doing out here, I did nothing,’ so I grabbed Mune and walked him out to the field for the first time.”
DeRosa also revealed that it was the team’s Latin players, including Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista, had taken it upon themselves to help the Japanese player learn English.
Why was the White Sox celebration so big?
The White Sox 2026 season has been an incredible turnaround for a team that had been one of the worst in the majors over the past two seasons. After putting up records of 60-102 in 2025 and 41-121 in 2024.
Chicago sits at 82-77 heading into Friday’s games, meaning the team has at least doubled their wins from two years ago.
But while the wild celebrations were very much deserved, the team still has much to play for in their final three games.
Sitting just a game back of the Cleveland Guardians in AL Central race, the White Sox could potentially vault themselves over their rival and earn a first-round bye in the playoffs.
The White Sox host the lowly Colorado Rockies to finish their season while the Guardians will be in Kansas City to take on the Royals.