Word: hideki
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...ballplayer in Japan. Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colborn, a former Mariners director of Pacific Rim scouting who coached in Japan, says some three dozen Japanese players could play in the majors. But it's the imminent exodus of top players like Matsui, along with Yomiuri Giants centerfielder Hideki Matsui and Kintetsu Buffaloes third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, that threatens to turn a national point of pride into just another major league farm system...
...Hideki Matsui...
...next five months, though, all manner of speculation, panic and pride will rain down on Giants centerfielder Hideki Matsui, 28, the free-agent slugger, two-time MVP and former batting champion who is called Godzilla "because I look so scary," he says. The 1.9 m, 95.3 kg Hideki bears the fortunate burden of playing for Japan's oldest, most successful team, an institution combining the prestige of the Yankees and the fan reverence accorded Notre Dame. The Giants always lead the league in attendance and give their stars a profile Ichiro could only have dreamed of when he played...
...Hideki leaves, it's a tragedy," says Jun Ikushima, a Tokyo reporter and co-author with Seattle Mariners reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa of the book My Way to Study English, which became a best seller in Japan. "Hideki's the best player in Japan now, and the Giants are the symbol of Japanese baseball. It's bigger than Ichiro leaving. We depend on Hideki for so much?his popularity, his dynamism?that if he goes, I can't imagine what will happen. I will feel emptiness. It will be the beginning of the destruction of Japanese baseball...
...Hideki Akamatsu deploys his forces on a white board in the operations room. A master sergeant in the 45-man Japanese peacekeeping contingent on the Golan Heights, Akamatsu scribbles details of the vehicles he sent out of the base on this morning's mission. "We are well-trained and we are not afraid," he says. "We are ready to handle anything." What he's handling, however, is nothing more dangerous than the outsourced laundry of the Canadian peacekeepers who share Camp Zirouani with the Japanese. Outside, Akamatsu's commanding officer, Major Shinji Furusho stands watch for the laundry truck...