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Baseball

Mania kicks off as Godzilla hits shore

Japanese star and new Yankee Hideki Matsui lands to hero's welcome.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 11, 2003

TAMPA -- Godzilla has landed.

As travelers and families waited for departures and arrivals at Tampa International Airport on Monday, passing time with an ice cream cone or crossword puzzle, George Steinbrenner's newest star outfielder arrived at the Yankees' spring training hometown on a Continental 757 from Newark, N.J.

Hideki Matsui didn't ride the tram from Terminal A or take the escalator down to the baggage claim area, but he did leave quite an impression.

"I don't know who he is," an employee at a shoeshine stand said before Matsui's arrival, "but he must be big."

Bigger, at least in the eyes and minds of his admirers, than a Derek Jeter or a Roger Clemens.

One-half of a marquee inside the main terminal congratulated the Bucs for winning Super Bowl XXXVII. The other half welcomed the former Japanese League and Yomiuri Giants star to town.

Nearly 30 Japanese reporters, cameramen and photographers documented Matsui's arrival and departure from the sixth floor of the long-term parking garage.

Perched along the south wall of the structure, they saw Matsui's plane land and taxi to Gate A6 and watched as the player was whisked away in a white van escorted by two police cars like a high-ranking military or political official.

But they weren't as close as the two women who appeared from behind a row of bushes to wave and giggle as Matsui's van drove away.

"Matsui is the most famous guy in Japan," said Takashi Ralph Suzuki, a reporter for the Nippon Television Network Corporation who has been covering Matsui's impending arrival since Thursday. "Everybody knows him in Japan.

"It's going to be twice the media coverage as there was for (Mariners outfielder) Ichiro (Suzuki). To be the Yomiuri Giants' No. 1 hitter means every single move he makes, people are watching."

Matsui mania hit Tampa Bay even before his arrival.

The Legends Field gift shop has sold out of No. 55 Matsui jerseys, which cost more than $100 each, but expects another shipment to arrive either today or Wednesday.

And BarleyHoppers International Alehouse and Grille in Ybor City has created a special Godzilla sandwich. The pressed sandwich consists of teriyaki pork, pineapple salsa, ham and Swiss cheese on a 15-inch round loaf of bread.

"We basically made a Cuban-style sandwich in honor of him," chef Richard Allen said.

Matsui's stats seem to warrant such lofty status.

The 28-year-old, who played the past 10 seasons with Yomiuri and signed a three-year deal worth $21-million in the offseason to play for the Yankees, has hit 34 or more home runs the past seven seasons. He batted .334 with 50 homers and 107 RBIs for Yomiuri last season.

"Everyone in Japan is curious," Takashi Ralph Suzuki said. "They're very curious about how he is going to do here."

Monday's spectacle will be duplicated throughout spring training, on the well-manicured ballfields and in the cramped clubhouses throughout the state, and during the regular season. Nippon Television alone has 30-40 employees following the story during spring training and files reports to Japan at least once a day.

"If it snows in New York and he makes a snowball, it'd be the No. 1 article in Japan," Suzuki said. "I'm used to it now. I see the reactions from (Americans) and feel like we're doing something crazy. But it's so common in Japan."

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