About Joel

More than great expectations for Hideki

The Yankees have 26 World Series banners, seven starting pitchers and, now, one national treasure.

Whatever you think Derek Jeter is in New York or Michael Jordan was in his prime or Eminem is at the TRL studios, you should have a better grasp today that those all pale to what Hideki Matsui is in his home country. He is the most popular person (not baseball player, not athlete - person) in Japan.

The joke among media is you can judge what George Steinbrenner thinks of one his signings by whether he has a chef cutting prime rib at the Yankee Stadium press conference or not. So what can you make of Tuesday's gathering to introduce Matsui as a Yankee? There was no carving board. But there also was no Yankee Stadium.

The eyes of an entire nation will forever be on Matsui. (AP)

In all, there were more than 300 media members and 28 camera crews to absorb Matsui's rather bland statements as he showed there is not many more ways to say you will play hard every day in Japanese as there arein English. But this was not about the words as much as the event; the marriage of Godzilla to baseball's King Kong.

It was an introduction to New Yorkers and North American baseball lovers about just how huge Matsui is. If you need more than know this, Sports Nippon recently reported that the slugger's hometown of Negari-cho might merge with two other local communities to form a brand new place - Matsui city. There already is a Hall of Fame in Matsui's hometown dedicated strictly to him.

You should know NHK has bought the rights to televise seven Yankee games. Oh, that is seven spring training Yankee games. Including the opener Feb. 27 against the Reds in which Matsui is likely to get one, maybe two at-bats. And, oh yeah, the game will start at 3:15 a.m. on Feb. 28 in The Land of the Rising Sun. And one other thing, NHK is expecting a mammoth audience to watch anyway.

This merely shows the incredible burden Matsui is coming with. If it were not just hard enough to be a big-name free agent for Steinbrenner's Yankees, Matsui comes here with the eyes of an entire nation upon him, with the aspirations of an entire nation upon him, with the future relationship of Japanese-American baseball upon him.

If Hideki Irabu - and we all know what happened with him- was the Nolan Ryan of Japan, what about Matsui? (AP)

Japan has never sent a power hitter to the American major leagues. And in this case it is not sending a power hitter, it is sending THE power hitter. If he succeeds, the pathway from Japan to the United States will grow ever wider. If he fails, players in Japan and teams in North America will both become more gun-shy about coupling.

Matsui will come with some advantages. There have been folks who have naively asked Matsui about coming to the big city. Well, you should know Matsui played in Tokyo, which has a population about three times as large as New York City. He was the most scrutinized public figure in the country, which should at least help with what will probably be 25-50 reporters from Japan assigned strictly to following Matsui in the United States. He played for the Yomiuri Giants, who like the Yankees begin each season with a championship being the only acceptable goal.

And, yet, there is no way Matsui can be fully ready for what is coming. Because it is coming in a different language, a different culture and a different atmosphere. There will be alterations that have to be made to both America and America's pastime. The ball, the size of the stadiums and the abilities of the players are all different here.

Matsui will need an adjustment period. But will that take spring training? A month of the regular season? A whole regular season? Both he and the Yankees can only hope that there is an adjustment period because that would mean, at some point, Matsui became adjusted. Plenty of folks born and bred in this country came to the Yankees thinking they wanted the bright lights, big city, great burdens. And plenty of Ed Whitsons, Kenny Rogers and Rondell Whites recognized too late that they were not built for all of this.

But as Tuesday's press conference revealed, Matsui would not crash and burn in anything resembling quiet. That is not a possibility when you arrive this big and with even huger expectations. That is what happens when you arrive as a national treasure.