Godzilla’s new adventure is dominating the country’s sports pages, street conversations and online message boards. Top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda expressed the sentiment best: “I feel conflicted because I’ll miss him in Japan, but at the same time I’m proud to see him play on the international stage.” Yoshimi Okamoto, an 18-year-old baseball fan in Tokyo, added: “He’ll show Americans our ballplayers are as good and big as theirs.” That’s the center of speculation now: does Matsui have what it takes to play in the majors, and which team will pick him up?
The answer to the second question will probably come soon after Nov. 13, when free agents are allowed to pair up with teams. But how Matsui will do in the big show will probably remain a hot topic all the way to spring training. He will inevitably be compared with Ichiro, which might prove tough for Godzilla, the first Japanese slugger to try his luck in the majors. Nobody in Japan can match his power, but it won’t make him as unique in the States as Ichiro, who’s lean, sure and awfully quick.
The fact that he’s leaving Japan isn’t a huge surprise. Although Matsui kept mum about his plans since he became eligible for free agency in April, the signs were there. For the past two years, the 6-foot-1, 210-pound star has declined a lucrative multiple-year contract, opting instead for one-year deals. Besides, Matsui has little left to prove in Japan. He has been a home run and RBI champ three times, and won a batting title and three Japan Series. Having brought the Giants to another championship last week, Godzilla just completed the best year of his career: he led the league with 50 homers and 107 RBI, and posted a .334 batting average.
Still, leaving wasn’t an easy decision. The Giants’ execs pleaded with him to consider his responsibility as the best player on Japan’s most popular team, as well as his place as a role model in Japanese baseball. Ichiro and Nomo, who played with lesser teams, never came under pressure like that. A few days before his decision became public, his father told NEWSWEEK his son was “torn between the two choices.” At the press conference, Matsui said, “I agonized over it to the end.” He added a moment later: “Some might call me a traitor.”
Others might soon call him a Yankee. Although Godzilla says he has no designs on any city in particular, and many teams probably would like to see him on their roster, the buzz is that the Yankees might replace Rondell White or Raul Mondesi with Matsui in the outfield. Former Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who coached a Japanese pro team in 1995, thinks Matsui is a natural, though moving to the Big Apple would still be a leap. He “has great experience with the expectations of the Giant fans and media [in Japan], but there is more in New York,” Valentine told NEWSWEEK. “After some time for cultural adjustments he’d play like an all-star.”
The habits he’s developed in Japanese play concern some scouts. Japanese pitchers have long thrown around him because “any breaking pitch up in the strike zone will be a home run,” says Tokyo baseball writer Jim Allen. As a result, Matsui isn’t that selective about when to swing the bat and ends up chasing “too many bad pitches.”
The one thing nobody is worried, though, about is his star appeal. Quick to smile, outgoing and laid-back, Godzilla is likely to win America’s hearts. His respect for the game has charmed Japanese fans ever since his final high-school performance in the 1992 national tournament. As the country’s most powerful teenage slugger, he drew five intentional walks from the frightened pitcher. Enraged spectators booed and yelled. The 18-year-old Matsui, however, quietly dropped his bat and ran to first base each time, never raising a word of complaint. A whole country was mesmerized and a star was born. Whether Matsui remains a home-run king in the States, behavior like that will certainly make him stand out in the major leagues.
