O.G (Original Godzilla)

Name: Hideki Matsui

Card Company: Topps

Year: 2006

Team: New York Yankees

Bats/Throws: L/R

Ht: 6'2

When you think of Japanese baseball players you think of the slashers like Ichiro or a pitcher with a funky delivery and nasty off-speed pitches like a Hideo Nomo or a Yu Darvish. But how often do we overlook Hideki Matsui who was one of the rare players to come over from Japan whose power translated to the MLB. Hideki Matsui in only ten years in the MLB put up 175 HR’s and 760 RBI’s all while maintaining a respectable .282 batting average. Coming out to an average of 23 HR's and 100 RBI's per year again all while maintaining a batting average of .282.

Nicknamed Godzilla, Matsui would make the most impact as a member of the New York Yankees who signed him out of Japan in December of 2002. Like many Japanese players today he had his own beat writers who would follow him around and then report the stories they saw back to Japan. And what they saw was Matsui becoming first Yankee ever to hit a grand slam in his first game at Yankee Stadium. He would go on to finish 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting hitting .287 with 16 home runs and 106 RBIs.

However, that 2nd place finish did seem to stir up a bit of controversy, and unlike many Yankee complaints this time they had a right to be upset. Hideki Matsui finished behind Ángel Berroa of the Kansas City Royals in a very close race. However, it

was found out that two writers, Jim Souhan and Bill Ballou, refused to include him on their ballot, stating that his previous experience in Japan made him ineligible. However, this did not stop them from voting for Ichiro Suzuki or Kazuhiro Sasaki, both who played multiple years in Japan and are still today the oldest recipients of the award. Ángel Berroa would go on to have a very unremarkable career while Matsui would go on to thrive. And here I thought the BBWAA was all about being reasonable and intelligent when it comes to voting.

Matsui because of age and his lack of defensive ability would eventually be forced to make the change to being a full-time DH in 2009. However, this would not stop him from having one last great ride with the pinstripes. He would go on to make Yankee history that year smashing 26 home runs breaking the Yankees' record for home runs in a single season by a designated hitter which was previously held by Don Baylor. In that same year, he would help the Yankees win the World Series posting a .615 batting with 3 home runs and 8 RBI's, including a historic performance in game six driving in a record tying 6 RBI’s leading the Yankees to their 27th World Series Championship. For his performance, he was named the World Series Most Valuable Player becoming the first full-time DH and the first Japanese born player to do so.

He would hit free agency for the first time in his career signing with the Angels in 2010. And in his lone season with the Halos he batted .274 with 21 home runs and 84 RBIs. He would then go on to have very brief stints with both the Oakland A’s and the Tampa bay Rays, neither of which resulted in good productivity. One can only imagine what more we could’ve seen from him had he started his career in the MLB? This same question can be asked as well for many great Japanese players including Ichiro, Hideo Nomo, Daisuke Matsuzaka and many others.

We only got to see a brief glimpse of this his possible greatness and just like that he was gone, his career fading off into the rising sun.

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