In Huffington Post, I found this post by Hideki Matsui’s agent: Arn Tellem: Godzilla Rocks Southern California. Matsui just signed a one-year deal with the Angels.
In the weeks since the Series victory, it became abundantly clear that resigning Hideki was not one of the Yankees’ priorities. Hideki’s overriding concerns have always been winning and playing for a quality organization. Over his 17 seasons in pro ball, his only two teams have been the Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants. Each is the premier franchise in its respective league. Beyond the Yanks, his preferences were the Angels and the Boston Red Sox, two dominating franchises with superb players, coaches and management. But with David Ortiz entrenched as Boston’s everyday designated hitter, the Red Sox were never a real option. When Angels DH Vladimir Guerrero filed for free-agency, L.A. became even more attractive to Hideki.
What? Wait a minute. “Beyond the Yanks, his preferences were the Angels and the Boston Red Sox.?” Whoa, imagine having two of the three Japanese super star MLB players, Ichiro, Matsuzaka and Matsui? That would be just crazy. And it is also notable that a baseball agent is freely blogging what is going on (obviously after the fact, but still). I am not complaining, it is great, just different.
