Ex-Yanks on hand to unveil HOF exhibit on U.S.-Japan bond

NEW YORK -- As he arrived in the United States at the beginning of the 2003 season, Hideki Matsui focused on adjusting to the American style of pitching, timing his swing to catch up with quicker fastballs than he had become accustomed to hitting during his years of success in Japan.

As long as Matsui could do that, he reasoned, the rest would take care of itself.

“I just wanted to play with the Yankees,” Matsui said through an interpreter. “That’s really all I wanted: to wear the pinstripes and to play with the Yankees. Those were really my expectations. Of course, there was a responsibility to play well, not just wear the uniform. For me, it was an honor to have been able to play on the same field as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.”

Matsui was back at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, helping the National Baseball Hall of Fame announce its upcoming exhibit, “Yakyu/Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game between Japan and the United States.”

Debuting in the same year as Ichiro Suzuki’s first appearance on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Hall of Fame ballot, the 2025 exhibit will feature artifacts and stories about a game that became Japan’s most popular sport less than 50 years after the United States and Japan established diplomatic relations.

Baseball remains a cultural touchstone for both countries, with players crossing the Pacific Ocean in both directions to play as amateurs and professionals.

One such player was former Yankees outfielder Roy White, who concluded his career by playing for the Yomiuri Giants from 1978-80. White proudly noted that he shared clubhouses with two of the game’s greatest all-time home run hitters in Mickey Mantle and Sadaharu Oh.

“I had been interested in Japanese baseball for several years, and I knew about players that had been over there before me,” White said. “Some of the most fun I had playing baseball was in Japan. I enjoyed the country, the people, their passion for baseball. It’s an experience that I cherish to this day, and I made lifetime friends from there.”

Located on the Museum’s third floor, the exhibit will cover more than 1,800 square feet of space while examining four aspects of transpacific baseball: Japanese teams touring America (the first such tour was by Waseda University in 1905), American teams touring Japan (including a massively popular Ruth visit in 1934), U.S.-born players in Japan and Japanese-born players in the U.S.

“I think the importance is not just to [study] baseball history, but to experience it,” Matsui said. “The Baseball Hall of Fame, it was very important for me to go there and not just see the exhibits, but to experience that and understand the stories behind each piece. It helps deepen your understanding of the history.”