WAITING FOR MATSUI.(baseball player Hideki Matsui )

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 03-MAR-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

Yoshihiro Ando had performed the ritual of observing Hideki Matsui emerge from a sport-utility vehicle and duck into Yankee Stadium. Having been assured that Matsui would lift weights and hit baseballs for no less than four hours, he had decided it was safe to retreat to the warmth of the McDonald's on the corner of 161st Street and River Avenue. He was joined by Takahiro Horikawa, a colleague from the Asahi Shimbun. There seemed no risk of getting scooped, on this frigid Saturday morning, since most of the other Japanese reporters and photographers on the Matsui beat were already tucking into their Egg McMuffins and poring over the local tabs.

Matsui, a tall, handsome outfielder who hits for both power and average, signed with the Yankees in January. In Japan, this...

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