Godzilla will move to California

I just heard on TV today that the Japanese baseball player Hideki Matsui, who was recently chosen as the New York Yankees MVP (Most Valuable Player) in the World Series game that they just played not long ago, will be changing teams after playing for the Yankees for six years.

Once the 2010 professional baseball season starts, Matsui will begin his one year contract playing for the Los Angeles Angels baseball team…and will earn US $6.5 million (about JPY ¥583 million).

Hideki Matsui started his professional baseball career playing for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants baseball team from 1993 -2002.

He was given the nickname “Godzilla“…originally because of his bad skin complexion, but later it referred to his powerful batting.

Tokyo Giants

In 2003, he began playing for the New York Yankees of the Major League Baseball (MLB) in America.

Even in America, he was still called “Godzilla“…and he still batted powerfully!

Godzilla demolished his bat!

I guess New York Yankees fans are disappointed to see him leave for Los Angeles…possibly the same way Tokyo Giants fans felt when he left to play in America six years ago.

World Baseball Classic ’09

Do you know what the World Baseball Classic is?

World Baseball Classic logo

It’s a new international baseball competition. Like soccer’s World Cup.

The World Baseball Classic 2009 started today.
This is only the second time that the World Baseball Classic occurred.
The World Baseball Classic 2006 was the first and only other time this competition took place so far.

Japan was the champion team of the World Baseball Classic 2006 games.

The first game of the World Baseball Classic 2009 was Japan vs China. This game took place this afternoon (Japan time) at the Tokyo Dome.

Japan beat China with a final score of 4-0.
The next game will be Korea vs Taipei, also at the Tokyo Dome. Japan will face the winning team of that game on March 7th (again at the Tokyo Dome).

At the Tokyo Dome

The Japan team has high hopes of winning the World Baseball Classic again.

The host cities for the World Baseball Classic ’09 are Tokyo, Japan; Mexico City, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; San Juan, Puerto Rico; San Diego, USA; Miami, USA; and Los Angeles, USA.

The countries that have teams competing are: Japan (with Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka on the team), South Korea, China, Taipei, Australia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Dominican Republic (with Alex Rodriguez on the team), Cuba, Italy, The Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and South Africa.

The World Baseball Classic 2009 will go from today’s game that Japan won until the final in Los Angeles on March 23, 2009.

Do you like baseball?
Are you following the World Baseball Classic? Which team are you supporting?
Did you watch the Japan vs China game today? If so, did you watch it on TV…or were you at the Tokyo Dome?

By the way, if you wanna visit the official World Baseball Classic homepage…then, click here.