Major League Baseball: Hideki Matsui and the Secular Church of Baseball

By Tom Plate

A lot of Hollywood movie moguls believe almost religiously that 1988's "Bull Durham" offers one of the best opening lines in the history of American movies. You see first a parade of images of past baseball greats and not-so-greats, as if a promenade of saints. And then you hear the sweet voice of Annie Savoy (played unforgettably by Susan Sarandon) saying: "I believe in the church of baseball."

Nice, eh?

Permit us, then, to extend this ecclesiastical metaphor further.
If the game of baseball is a secular church, then the American version Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium installed a new cardinal. Just throw off his New York Yankee baseball cap and replace it with the appropriate cardinal's vestment, a pontifical mitre. For the secular god of baseball in the United States right now is Hideki Matsui, the first Japanese-born baseball player to win the Most Valuable Player award for overall performance in a World Series. This is the crowning height of the professional sport.

In Japan, where this giant star played professionally before joining the Yankees in 2003, Matsui is known as "Godzilla." He possessed a slugger's monster bat for 10 years with the Yomiuri Giants.

In America he retained the Godzilla moniker, but he also became known as something of a mensch. This is a hard concept perhaps. Mensch, technically, stems from the Yiddish word that means "human being" and is originally derived from old German. But in New York it means much more: It means a lovable character that sometimes drives you nuts even as you cannot help loving him to death.

That would be the average Yankee fan's affection for Matsui.

And that affection was redeemed anew Wednesday night by newly installed Cardinal Hideki. In the best-of-seven World Series against a very talented team from Philadelphia, Godzilla hit an astonishing (.615), and in the deciding Game 6 tied the record for RBIs (six) in a single World Series game. As the Yankees scored seven runs in Game 6, Matsui the mensch, you might say, was the decider. That's why he rightly won the big honor.

But sometimes, Yankee fans have wanted to slug their slugger.

That's because his squishy knees tend to collapse like an over-raced thoroughbred's and he seems to get hit with more negative impact than the divider guard-rail on the Hollywood Freeway.

Even so, Yankee fans can't help but love the big guy: Three years ago, while chasing after a fly ball in a game against the hated Red Sox, Godzilla stumbled, fell on his arms and wrist, and wound up in a cast.

Sports injuries are not unusual, of course, but Matsui's subsequent public apology to his teammates and manager was. He actually said he was "sorry." He apologized to his teammates for letting them down by getting injured. The New York Times was so overwhelmed by the novelty and flummoxed by the cultural humility of the star that it devoted a major feature story to the meaning and cultural origins of the Japanese apology, and to the humble character of the Japanese.

Having been a Yankee fan since about the age of 6, I have seen great stars come and go. Mickey Mantle surely was the greatest one I actually saw play with my own eyes. He could do everything (including drink!). I loved the grit of the late great Thurman Munson, the grumpy catcher, who never let a charging base-runner push him off home plate or willingly answer reporters' questions. More recently, who can deny that infielder Derek Jeter and closer Mariano Rivera don't deserve to get into the Hall of Fame?

But if I were the Yankee manager today and I had one last out and needed one big hit and I could put anyone up to the plate, that would be Matsui before A-Rod or even Jeter.

Annie Savoy puts it so well near the end of "Bull Durham:" "Baseball may be a religion full of magic, cosmic truth, and the fundamental ontological riddles of our time, but it is also a job."

Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, Matsui the mensch got the job done.

"Man, he looked like he wanted it bad, didn't he? said Yankee captain Derek Jeter. "Matsui is one of my favorite players, one of my favorite teammates. He comes ready to play every day. He's a professional hitter."

During the game, Yankee fans throughout the stadium responded theatrically to Godzilla's heroics by holding up supportive signs in Japanese. Many shouted "MVP" after his third big hit. His RBI-artistry equaled the 1977 and 1978 World Series performances of "Mr. October," the legendary Reggie Jackson.

"Great, great player. Represents his country well," Reggie said of Matsui. "He's a gentleman. He's a class act."

And he's a credit to Japan, its work ethic and its culture of pride and humility, in the secular church of baseball.

Originally Published November 9, 2009 in the Asahi Shimbun and The New Haven Register.