Hey everybody. Welcome to my first Rockies player spotlight blog entry. Allow me to introduce our newest spotlight, Kazuo Matsui. Here you'll find his stats, info about his life, career, and some cool facts about him.
Personal Life:
Born: October 23, 1975
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Sign: Libra
Family: Wife Mio and daughter Haruna
Lives: Los Angeles, CA during almost all of the off-season.
Age: 31
Baseball Facts:
First Professional Team: Seibu Lions in Japan (1995-2003)
First MLB Team: New York Mets (2004-2006)
Number: 7
Position: Second base
Stats: (Through October 5, 2007)
Throws: Right
Bats: Switch
Home Runs: 17
Stolen Bases: 62
Hits: 376
Matsui speaks little English, so he has an interpreter nicknamed "Yoshi", is part of Matsui's contract. Pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez says about his teammate,"He try to learn a little bit Spanish and we try to learn his Japanese, and then we mix it with English so we communicate." Jimenez has been known to snap pictures of Matsui sleeping on planes, but Matsui has a few pranks up his glove as well.
As a boy, Matsui thought the number seven felt just right. So when it wasn't available while he played for the Mets, he settled with 25, since the two numbers added up to 7. He repeated that last year, taking number 16, but this year, he's back to 7.
Matsui gets along famously with his teammates, who consider him a rising star. His contract runs out this year, but general manager Dan O'Dowd says,"We make those decisions at the end of the year, but he's expressed a desire to come back abnd we've expressed a desire to have him back. Now it gets down to the business part of it. We'll deal with that when we're over with this."
Thanks to Wikipedia and the Rocky Mountain News.
"I wander aimlessly with some sort of aim."