Greatest Japanese players in New York Yankees history
1. Hideki Matsui
Godzilla came to the Bronx, but he didn’t destroy it. He just destroyed the Yankees’ opponents.
He did it all. On defense, he was a reliable outfielder who made some stellar plays. On offense, he tore the cover off the ball, including a grand slam in his first game at Yankee Stadium.[sc name=”Yankees Center Right” ]
Matsui continued to deliver over the years and ended up becoming the World Series MVP in 2009 when the Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.
During that series, he hit .615 with three home runs. Most importantly, he became the first full-time DH and Japanese-born player to win the coveted WS MVP award.
There is no shortage of highlights for the Yankees and Godzilla. Since his arrival in 2003, he provided reliability and monster moon shots for the Yankees.
After his career in New York, Matsui bounced around teams until his retirement in 2012 but will ultimately go down as the best Japanese-born player to ever sport the navy blue pinstripes.
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Allison is just a girl with an enormous passion for the game of baseball and the written word. Based in Upstate New York, her life-long relationship with the New York Yankees is something that she developed through close relationships with her mother and grandfather. An aspiring sports writer, she graduated with a journalism degree and is finding places to share her excitement about the sporting world and how it affects us all.
