In December of 2002 the Yankees did what they do and reached into their wallets to sign Japanese legend, Hideki Matsui, or Godzilla.  Not only was he the most respected and popular players in Japan, but he was also one of Japan’s most popular people.  How popular? Well for one the former prime minister of Japan volunteered to be the head of his fan club, he also got his own parade in Tokyo just for signing with the Yankees, and once he hit a HR so far the mayor of his hometown declared it an act of God.  And all this was before he became the MVP of the 2009 World Series.
          Known for his stoic demeanor, his bat, and his extensive porn collection*, Godzilla has an instant hit in NY hitting a grand slam in his first game in Yankee Stadium, and finished second for rookie of the year, though his rookie season came to a disappointing end when they lost to the Marlins in the World Series.  He went on to have several good seasons with the Yankees his best coming in 2004 when he hit 298 with 31 HRs and 108 RBI.  Unfortunately injuries took about a seasons worth of games away from Matsui.  In 2006 Matsui had a particularly nasty injury when he attempted to make a sliding catch.

Despite breaking his wrist he still picked up the ball and threw it back, after the game he apologized to the fans for his injury.  The injury ended his 518 games played streak for the Yankees, 1,768 games overall.  His strong work ethic, determination, and addiction to porn helped him strengthen his wrist enough for him to return to the field in September going 4 for 4 in his first game back.
     2008 was a big year for Matsui, he won a bet with teammates Bobby Abreau and Derek Jeter by getting married first.  Here is Matsui proudly displaying  his new wife

.

      Now I don’t really know what to make of this, but in my opinion there are only three real possibilities. Either he’s trying to project her identity by not showing her real picture, or he is such a fierce competitor that he faked a wedding to win a bet, or perhaps he shares the same feelings as fellow countrymen Taichi Takashita, who grew tired of the three dimensional world, and wanted to become a resident of the 2 dimensional world, though since current technology cannot support such retarded aspirations, had to settle for petitioning to legalize human/cartoon marriages**

     Anyway back to baseball, 2009 was Matsui’s last year with the Yankees, hobbled by bad knees and an aging body Matsui was no longer able to play the field, and regularly had to take days off and get his knees drained just for running the bases.  He still had an excellent year managing to hit 28 hrs in just 456 at bats.  Of course that pales in comparison to what we was able to do in the World Series.  In just 13 at bats Matsui managed 8 hits, 3 hrs and 8 RBI, basically winning the deciding game 6 by himself, in his last game as a Yankee, and taking home the MVP award.
        This year he will be playing for the Angels and hopefully the California sun will rejuvenate Godzilla’s body, if not though I’m sure he can go back to Japan play a year or two and retire a hero.

 

* as of March 2008 he reportedly had 55,000 videos.  Now assuming that each video is around 30 minutes long, that should be about 27,500 hours which translates into just over 3 years worth of porn.

**really, almost a direct quote.

Japan doesn’t usually get the respect it deserves as far as being considered the premiere baseball country in the world, this despite the fact that they have won the only two World Baseball Classics, the World Series MVP is from Japan, as is former AL MVP and possibly the best contact hitter in baseball history.  So my next few posts will be strictly about Japanese baseball players, from the best, the worst, to the outlandish.  Let’s start with the outlandish.

Tsuyoshi Shinjo- In Japan Shinjo is an icon, though known more for his dyed hair-sprayed hair, his good looks, and his Ochocinco-esque stunts than his play.  Statistically Shinjo did not have a great career, never hitting more than 30 hrs in any season in Japan and totaling only 20 hrs in 3 years in the MLB. All while only hitting a mere 250 for his career.  Though he did total 9 gold gloves while in Japan and became the first Japanese player to play in a World Series in America, and in finally won a Japan Series when his Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters won in his final season in baseball.

So why is Shinjo, an above average player, so beloved?  The answer is simple, its because he’s so damn entertaining.  This is a man who was lowered from the roof of a stadium onto the field for an All-Star game.  In fact All-Star games seem to be the perfect platform for Shinjo to showcase his mixture of exciting all out play and bizarre sense of humor. In one All-Star game he used a rainbow colored bat and wore an LED belt that said “Nevermind what I do!!!Fan is my treasure!!!” During another All-Star game he used a golden bat, and in another he stole home.
He is also known for his stunts with his uniforms.  He’s once famously reprimanded by the league for wearing his old Tigers jersey while playing for the Fighting Ham, and for wearing a collared shirt under his uni.  And he has on several occasions worn ridiculous masks during warm ups.

Here is Shinjo with a frog hat on.

Here is Shinjo with a mask of a face eating a face, eating a face, eating Shinjo.

I have no words for this picture, just love.

Since retiring Shinjo immediately announced his intentions to pose nude with his wife*.  He also won Japan’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” which I’ve never seen but I can say with 90 percent certainty that it somehow involved a very painful obstacle course.  He has also came out of retirement to get the last out of a SoftBank Hawks game as a pitcher.  Anyway here’s the video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOxP8YQ1NYA

What’s awesome about Shinjo in this video is 1. He’s not a pitcher, 2. Where most people have a number on the back of their jersey he has a picture of his face, and 3. After he gets the batter to ground out, he gets the ball and throws it into the stands, next goes his gold colored glove, then he runs around high fiving everyone, teammates, umpire, and fans, all for getting the last out of a meaningless game.

I will end this section on Shinjo with a conversation he had with his manager Katsuya Nomura.

After asking Shinjo why he didn’t steal more bases given his excellent speed Shinjo replies with ” because I have no interests in it” then added he didn’t want his legs to get bigger because they wouldn’t look as good in his jeans.awesome.

*although a quick google search of “Shinjo nude” yielded page after page of hentai** and sadly no Shinjo

**for those of you who don’t know what hentai is, its basically anime porn that frequently features penetration by a tentacle.  and no that is not a typo.