MLB

Japan followed Matsui heroics

If New York toasted Hideki Matsui all night and morning after the Yankees’ 7-3 World Series-clinching victory in Game 6 last night in The Bronx, imagine the reaction in Japan, which has 20 Japanese media affiliates regularly covering the Bombers and which has sent 28 affiliates and more than 100 journalists to cover the World Series.

“This is unbelievable,” said Sataru Kagenezawa of Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper. “The biggest story in Japan for a Japanese player playing in the major leagues was Ichiro [Suzuki] winning the MVP (in 2001). “But I think this is even bigger.

“This is the World Series. Japanese players have played in the World Series since 2005 and won three times (the White Sox’s Tad Iguchi in 2005, the Cardinal’s So Taguchi in 2006 and the Red Sox’s Daisuke Matsuzaku in 2007). Akinori Iwamura played in it last year for Tampa Bay, but none of them ever played a winning role like this.”

Naofumi Murakami of Asahi Shimbun was similarly overwhelmed.

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“I never expected anything like this,” he said. “This is beyond our imagination.

“I would say it’s about even in Japan between [the popularity] of Matsui and Ichiro, but Ichiro has never been in a World Series, let alone been named an MVP.”

“I don’t know for sure,” said Hirazako Higuchi of Tokyo Chinichi Shimbun. “But I would think this will be on the front page of the paper, not just the sports section. Maybe Ichiro’s 262 hits in 2004 was the biggest thing to this point, but I don’t know now.”