Kazuo Matsui: Former Japanese Born Mets Infielder (2004-2006)

-
Kazuo Matsui was born on October 23, 1975 in Osaka Japan. Matsui was an All star shortstop in Japan, winning seven Best Nine awards, four gold gloves and two stolen base titles. His teams won four titles but never the final championship series.

In 2004 he became the first Japanese infielder to sign with a major league team when he became a New York Met.

Matsui debuted on Opening Day 2004 & hit a HR in his first MLB at bat off the Atlanta Braves Russ Ortiz at Turner Field. 

 Trivia: Matsui is the only player in MLB history to hit HRs in his first plate appearance for three straight seasons (2004-2005-2006). 

 On may 18th, 2004 he singled off the Cardinals Jason Isringhausen in the bottom of the 9th inning tying up the game, then Cliff Floyd drove in the winning walk off run.

On July 2nd he had a huge day at Shea in the subway series against the cross town rivals. Matsui hit two HRs off Mike Mussina driving in five runs in the Mets 11-2 win. By the All Star break he was batting .260 & in the second half he was limited to just 28 games due to injuries.

In his rookie 2004 season Matsui played short stop and the Mets moved the short stop of the future Jose Reyes over to second. None of these ideas worked out and Kaz was back at playing second base by the end of the season.

On the year he hit .272 with 32 doubles, 7 HRs, 44 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in his rookie year, not a bad showing but more was expected after the club had promoted him so highly. At short stop his 23 errors were second most in the league as he posted a .956 on base %.

The next season he once again hit a HR on Opening Day, this time in Cincinnati in the Mets 7-6 loss. He then drove in two more runs the next day. On April 29th he was batting .280 but it dropped off from there as he fell to .234 on June 21st when he went on the disabled list.

Back in the week of May 14th he drove in nine runs in seven games, including two in two games of the subway series. He missed almost two months of action & played in just 87 games the rest of the year, batting .255 with 3 HRs o doubles 4 triples & 24 RBIs.

On the field he posted a .970 fielding % making nine errors in 303 chances.

He began 2006 with a HR for the third straight season, this one was an inside the parker against the San Diego Padres. He slid past his former team mate Mike Piazza, now catching with the Padres at home plate for the score. By this season the Mets were a totally different team than when Matsui first joined the club.

Jose Valentin was surprised everyone in Spring Training and took over the second base spot. After 38 games Matsui was hitting only .200 and was shipped to the Colorado Rockies for Eli Marero. 

After spending his first two months in the minors, he came up and hit over .300 the remainder of the season. Colorado seemed like it was light years away, when the ’06 Mets finished first & the Rockies finished fourth. 

 Well by 2007 the Rockies won almost every game in the month of September and made the post season, as they surprised everyone.

Kazuo hit .288 with 24 doubles six triples and stole 32 bases during the regular season. He posted a .992 fielding % (best among all second baseman) & turned 26 double plays with Troy Tulowitzki up the middle infield.

The Rockies swept the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS & the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS getting all the way to the World Series, before losing to the Boston Red Sox.

2007 Post Season: Matsui hit his first career grand slam in Game #2 of the NLDS & almost became the first player to hit for the cycle in a post season game missing just a single. Overall in the post season he hit .304 with 8 RBIs.

In 2008 he signed as a free agent with the Houston Astros and batted a career best .293 stealing 20 bases. In 2009 he was still Houston’s second baseman hitting .250 in his last full season of MLB play.

In 2010 he saw action in just 27 games, getting released & signed back to play in Japan for 2011. In 2013 he played for Japan in the WBC. In November he signed on with the Saitama Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional League.

In his seven season career Matsui hit .267 with 615 hits 32 HRs 120 doubles 20 triples 102 stolen bases 211 RBIs & a .321 on base %.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

The 1970's Oakland A's Ball Girls- (MLB's First)

-
Image
In the days of the early seventies the Oakland A's won three straight Championships & changed the face of baseball forever.  The team's controversial owner was known to be cheap in paying his star players & known to meddle in the teams on field affairs. He drove managers crazy & even had Dick Williams resign after winning his second straight World Series. But Finley also revolutionized baseball in many other ways. He was instrumental in getting the designated hitter in the American League & have the World Series played at night, so fans could attend after work. He gave his players fancy names like Catfish, Blue Moon & True Blue.  When his star Reggie Jackson refused to shave his beard, he encouraged the whole team to grow facial hair by paying them $200 each.  The A's team even grew their hair long, a sign of the times. But before that baseball players had not had facial or long hair since the 1800's.  He introduced bright colored yello
Read more

Fictional Mets Infielder Chico Escuela ( of SNL) Visits Mets Spring Training (1979)

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Morris was filmed being interviewed by his SNL cast mate, Bill Murray as the fictional Mets player: Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was famous for his spoof of the Latin players of the time, who did not speak much English. His famous quote "baseball been berry- berry good to me" began the previous year on SNL's weekend update. Bill Murray & Ed Kranepool It was said during the mock 1979 Spring Training interview, that Chico who was a nine time All Star second baseman, had given up his job at the Weekend Update Sports desk to make a comeback with the Mets at age 41.  Chico had fictionally written a tell all baseball book; "Bad Stuff About the Mets" which tick
Read more

The Odd Couple TV Show's Beloved Supporting Cast

-
Image
On this the 45th Anniversary Season of when my favorite television show of all time The Odd Couple first debuted it's time to pay tribute to the great supporting  cast. Murray Greshler was a  big hit with fans as the simple minded bumbling NYPD Officer: Murray the Cop . Murray was a long time friend of Oscar Madison & usually becomes the subject of Oscar's jokes. Some great lines referenceing Murrays nose are "N ose' Feliciano" / "Tokyo Nose" & "Come inside Murray, your sucking up all the air in the hallway".  Even Felix chimed in asking him if the other army reserve soldiers made fun of him saying "when you look up it looks like a two car garage". Murray would become one of both Felix & Oscars best friends appearing 73 of the 114 Odd Couple episodes . Murray wouldn't think twice about double parking his patrol car double parked outside the Park Avenue or Central Park West building where Felix & Oscar
Read more