Ex-Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui is playing in a New York rec league
Like many athletes who retire, ex-New York Yankees slugger and Japanese baseball icon Hideki Matsui realized recently, he still had an itch to play. But he did something a bit different than the typical ex-star trying to re-live his glory days.
Matsui, 41, started to play rec-league baseball in New York this year. And he found the perfect place. New York City’s Nippon Club — a social club for Japanese immigrants that dates back to 1905 — has a baseball league for weekend warriors.
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It includes players who are doctors and bankers and accountants, according to a great article by the New York Times’ Billy Witz. There’s one pitcher who once played in the minor leagues. And this year, one who hit 507 career homers between MLB and NPB, the pro league in Japan.
Matsui *is* a professional in New York (he has a front-office job with the Yankees) and he’s obviously from Japan, so he fits in great. He’s just a little better than the other players, so when he started playing in the Nippon Club’s league, he said he’d bat right-handed to make things a little more fair.
Matsui joined the league at the urging of another player, George Reilly, who had met Matsui when he was working at a baseball clinic for Japanese-American kids. Matsui mentioned that he missed playing and Reilly said that the man they called “Godzilla” should join his league. Reilly was joking, but Matsui eventually did.
He had two conditions: He wants to sponsor the team, thus Team Matsui was born, and he wanted to be the starting pitcher. Since he played his entire career as an outfielder and DH, it’s pretty clear that Matsui’s goal wasn’t to embarrass a bunch of rec-league guys. He wanted to play baseball again, but in a different way. From The Times:
“The reason he’s here, I think, is a love of baseball,” said Kamal Ramani, a physician during the week and a reserve and coach for Team Matsui on weekends. “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s as simple as that. He loves the game.”
Matsui, who retired after the 2012 season and splits his time between Japan and New York, is still involved in baseball. He was hired in March as a special adviser to Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman. He has thrown batting practice for the Yankees and been an honorary coach during spring training, providing a comforting presence for pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who made his transition to New York last year.
On Sunday, Team Matsui finished up a six-week run in The Nippon Club’s 40th annual President Cup tournament. Matsui’s team beat Mizuho Bank, 2-1, in 12 innings to win the cup and Matsui played well, going 2-for-2 with an RBI single. He struck out 10 hitters in 5 2/3 innings, but hit a batter with the bases loaded in the sixth inning to bring in the tying run.
John Zhang came in as Team Matsui’s reliever. He kept the score tied and delivered the go-ahead single in the 12th inning. For that, Matsui — the former Yankee, the Japanese baseball hero — presented Zhang with the MVP trophy after the game.
Maybe these aren’t Matsui’s “glory days.” There’s no Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera around and there’s a lot less at stake. But a Sunday on the diamond, an extra-innings win, a championship trophy — that’s all still pretty glorious.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
