Major League Baseball
Grapefruit League notebook: Matsui homers in Japan return with NY

By Seattle Times news services

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TOKYO — Over and over, Hideki Matsui kept saying this was just another night. But, of course, it wasn't. It was his first game back in Japan since leaving after the 2002 season.

And when he deposited a hanging curveball into the right-center-field seats in the second inning yesterday, the enormously popular player they call Godzilla couldn't reign in his emotions. He cracked a wide smile after he crossed the plate and returned to the New York Yankees' dugout.

Matsui homered in his first at-bat back in Japan, starting an evening when the Yankees showed why they're called the Bronx Bombers back home.

Jorge Posada added a tiebreaking three-run homer and Derek Jeter hit a solo shot, leading the Yankees over the Yomiuri Giants 6-2 in New York's first game in Japan in 49 years.

After it was over, Matsui walked to a microphone and addressed the admirers who were so sad to see him depart Yomiuri 15 months ago to sign with the Yankees.

"What I did out there was to show my deepest appreciation for the fans," he explained later through a translator. "Most importantly, however, at the same time I didn't feel melancholy about it. I didn't have any special attachment toward it, looking back at my Yomiuri Giants days. No, that didn't happen. I just wanted to show them my gratitude."

While Matsui plays left field for the Yankees and his spot in the batting order changes constantly, with Yomiuri he received Japan's positions of honor — center field and cleanup in the batting order. That's where he played last night, the next-to-last exhibition for New York before tomorrow's opener against Tampa Bay.

"You're allowed to be bigger than the game tonight," Torre said he told him.

Meanwhile, Torre dropped center fielder Kenny Lofton — 8 for 50 (.160) this spring — from first to ninth in the batting order for tomorrow's opener.
 
Said Lofton: "I feel like I'm a leadoff hitter, and that's where I'm comfortable. I don't feel comfortable nowhere else."

Notes

• The baseball players' union might agree to drug testing along Olympic guidelines for a World Cup, which could lead to an agreement within a week to start a tournament before the 2005 season.

• Infielder Ricky Gutierrez, 33, was traded with cash to the New York Mets for a player to be named. "I'm just happy someone else wanted me," Gutierrez said. He played in just 16 games last season after undergoing a risky surgery in October 2002 to have two vertebrae fused in his neck.

• The Los Angeles Dodgers shot back at Kevin Towers, San Diego general manager, for his comments attacking their character.

Dodgers players expressed anger about Towers' quotes, which labeled them as underachievers, in Saturday's edition of the Los Angeles Times. They said he should stick to evaluating the Padres.

"He's not in our locker room, and he doesn't know anything about our character," said catcher Paul Lo Duca, the de facto clubhouse spokesman. "He doesn't know me, and I didn't say anything about his character, so you could take it personal."

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