As you know, the Angels reached an agreement on a one-year contract with Hideki Matsui worth $6.5 million yesterday to replace Vladimir Guerrero at the DH role. So now, let's take a look back at Godzilla's career in pinstripes.The Japanese import spent 7 great years with the Yankees, and he certainly went out with a bang in what was his last season in pinstripes. He batted .274 with 28 homers and 90 RBIs in the regular season, and then had a legendary performance in Game 6 of the World Series, driving in 6 runs and eventually capturing the World Series MVP. In his entire career, Matsui is a .292 hitter with 140 homers and 597 RBIs.
Matsui started his professional career in Japan as the superstar outfielder of the Yomiuri Giants. A three-time MVP in the Japanese Central League (1996, 2000, and 2002), Matsui led his team into four Japan Series and winning three titles (1994, 2000 and 2002). He also made nine consecutive all-star games and led the league in home runs and RBIs three times (1998, 2000, and 2002). His single season mark for home runs was 50 in 2002, his final season in Japan. In the ten seasons he played in Japan, Matsui totalled 1268 games played, 4572 AB, 1390 hits, 901 runs, 332 home runs, 889 RBIs, a .304 batting average, and a .582 slugging percentage.
After signing a big deal with the Yanks in December of 2002, Matsui put up big numbers in his rookie season in ‘03, finishing 2nd in the Rookie Of The Year balloting to Angel Berroa. He had an even bigger year in 2004, crushing 31 home runs and posting a .298 average. 2005 was just as good, but 2006 was when things suffered a setback. Matsui broke his wrist in May and played in only 51 games that year, and the Yanks missed him dearly.
2007 was a bounce back of sorts for Godzilla, as he blasted 25 dingers and drove in 103 runs. That proved to the Yanks that he can still be productive, but knee surgery in the offseason forced them to limit his outfield starts and make him the primary DH in 2008. But yet another knee injury, which required another surgery, forced him to miss most of the 2nd half in ‘08.
But as I said, Matsui bounced back strong in 2009, playing in 142 games and finally getting his first World Series ring, plus an MVP to go along with it.
I don’t know about you, but to me, Matsui was one of my favorite Yankees in the past decade. He hit for average, slugged at least 25 homers almost every season, and was just a classy guy. And if it weren’t for him, we may not have won Game 6 and may not have won the Fall Classic at all. I’ll miss ya Godzilla. Good luck in LA.
