By Robert Whiting (2009)
“It has been the best of times and the worst of times.”
These days, for Japanese baseball in the United States, Charles Dickens’ opening line in “A Tale of Two Cities”—may be the most fitting.
On the one hand, Japanese baseball’s reputation in the USA hit an all-time peak in the wake of Team Japan’s sterling performance in the 2009 WBC, which was lauded by every media outlet from Sports Illustrated to the New York Times. The Japanese game’s standing among Americans was so high that it even earned a glowing review in a most unexpected place–the daily newspaper of the prestigious blue-blood Boston-based Tufts University, America’s leading school of International Relations, The TUFTS DAILY. In a long article describing in detail Team Japan’s Modus Operandi, the newspaper praised “the Japanese culture and its emphasis on harmony, teamwork and sublimating individuality for the greater good.” He called Sacrifice Bunting the “ultimate expression of these values,” and indicated that was something Americans might well learn from. (One wonders what is next? A statement from the White House?)
Also drawing praise has been the play of Kosuke Fukudome and Ichiro Suzuki, recovering from an ulcer which put him on the DL, who have both had several key hits in the early season (although Ichiro’s breaking of Isao Harimoto’s career hit record did not excite American baseball fans the way it did fans in Japan, given the fact that there are already dozens of players (28 in all) who have over 3,000 career hits.)
On the other hand, however, there has been fierce criticism of Japanese stars much of it aimed at Dice-K Matsuzaka, the 2009 WBC MVP who was 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA in this spring’s WBC, then 0-1 with a 12.79 ERA, 14 hits, 5 walks and 3 HRs in his first two starts for the Red Sox, before being put on the DL with a “strained shoulder.” His miserable performance in Boston has enraged some Red Sox fans. Typical was a fan named Lyn, who attacked Dice-K in her blog, “First his excuse was that he was having trouble adjusting to the size of the ball. Then it was the schedule that was the problem and then it was the travel. Now it appears he has fatigue. FATIGUE? In April? Matsuzaka appears to be just a lightweight.” Another fan named Keith predicted that Dice-K would be out of the MLB within 2 years. As he put it, “I think that Dice-K does not have the make-up or the stamina to pitch in the US. Last year’s record was a bit of a fluke. He throws too many pitches and nibbles too much to be effective over the long haul. He will get frustrated and seek to exit his contract.” A fan named Craft questioned Dice-K’s loyalties, which seemed to be with Team Japan, and not the Red Sox. “Dice-K does not have the makeup to be in the MLB. If you look at him sitting on the bench between starts, he looks very unhappy and does not talk to anyone. He sits alone. Something is wrong with him or within him. He is not happy.”
Wrote New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden in a rare piece sympathizing with Red Sox fans, “Do you think the Red Sox are thrilled at how the World Baseball Classic “grew the game globally” given now that Daisuke Matsuzaka has been lost to the disabled list with a right shoulder strain?
Sadder still is the case of Hideki Matsui.
The mark of a truly valuable hitter, baseball experts will tell you, is the ability to drive in a runner from third base with less than two outs. At the start of the season, no New York Yankee surpassed Hideki Matsui in that department. The Yankee star having succeeded in that particular situation 137 out of 189 times in his career–a 72.5 percent ratio. Among active players who have been in that situation at least 100 times in their career, Matsui is second in the majors only to Cleveland’s Victor Martinez who logs in at 74 percent.
Unfortunately, however, it appears that the Yankees will probably dump Matsui at the end of the 2009 season, when his contract expires. His knees are so bad that he can no longer play the outfield. And for much of April he could not even DH, being limited to pinch-hitting duties. Increasingly, one hears the dismaying cries of fans calling for his dismissal from the Yankees.
Consider this entry from a New York City Yankees blog, which is rather typical of the sentiments of Yankee fans toward Matsui these days: “Matsui had a nice few years at the start for the Yanks and his double in the 8th inning of Game 7 of the 2003 LCS will be forever in Yankee lore. But the sad truth is that Matsui is finished now. He can’t play the field and scares no one at the plate. It’s GM Cashman’s fault he paid all that money ($52 million over 4 years) to Matsui. Cashman should follow Matsui out the door.”
A friend of mine who reports for the New York Times says there is a growing belief among some Yankee fans that Matsui gave the Yankees a fake birth certificate because he looks to be in his early 40’s instead of his ‘official’ age of 35.
Such talk brings back memories of Japanese media’s comments on certain controversial foreign players of the past in Japanese baseball. (When will the New York media start calling Hideki Matsui “The multi-million pinch hitter”? Or label him the “Overpriced strikeout machine”? Such headlines were used to describe Reggie Smith and Gary Thomasson during their early struggles with the Yomiuri Giants.)
Of course, the season has barely begun. It’s only April and there is still time for a turnaround. One hopes that Dice-K will right himself and Matsui’s knees will heal.
But for now in New York and Boston, it appears that as far as their Japanese stars are concerned, it is now indeed the “Worst of Times.”
NOTE: In 2009 Matsui moved to the LA Angels and was out of baseball by 2011. Matsuzaka hung on for five more mediocre seasons with the Red Sox and New York Mets.
Tokyo Junkie 