baseball glove : Breaking News in Japan

It was the top of the late night news the Friday it happened; then lead of the Saturday evening news magazine show; and finally it ushered in the Sunday mid-morning Infotainment/Wide shows. A Japanese baseball player, chasing down a short pop fly in an American stadium, slid into the ball. As it entered his glove, his left forearm was forcibly pushed at an impossible angle in the opposite direction. The result was pretty grisly fare, but worthy of repeated replay because it was Japanese slugger, Hideki Matsui, an integral part of the New York Yankees. And, in one gruesome twist of gristle and bone, Matsui was also possessor of an American battle-conferred broken arm. In so doing, Matsui became the first American-based Japanese player to be struck down by a major injury in the decade that ReDot sandlotters have been going to American shores to catch and throw and hit and spit.

Back on Japanese TV, show after show replayed Matsui's painful sequence without surcease, leaving one to wonder: "how many times can one human-being break the same bone in the same appendage?" Aside from that, the message was more of the same; in almost every case, the narrative frame was: how was this development playing in the States? For manager Joe Torre, sitting wearily behind a phalanx of microphones in his office, it was a major loss. There wasn't a replacement player of Matsui's caliber to be found, he mused; certainly not on the Yankee bench. For team captain, Derrick Jeter, it was a blow: Matsui was the kind of player who could be counted on to produce every day, dinged up or not. For longtime clubhouse leader, Bernie Williams, this was no small turn of events: there wasn't a steadier player among the Yankee's all-star studded crew.

The assessment did not stop with clubhouse personnel. The fan in the street weighed in with opinions like: "This is tough. Matsui is one of our best players. I hope he can get well soon and return to the line-up as fast as possible." Even a booster for Yankee arch-rival, Boston, solicitously observed: "That's a shame, I'm a Sox fan, but Matsui's a good guy. Wish him well." A CBS newscast was replayed — on numerous stations — showing a sports anchor peering out at his American audience and intoning: "Tough news for Yankees fans. Hideki Matsui has broken his left arm and will be out for a number of months."

by tjm Holden