It could be Japan's most eagerly awaited matchup since Godzilla fought Megalon.

Back in 1993, before he won his first Pacific League batting title and when he still wore his last name on his jersey, Ichiro Suzuki hit his first professional home run off Hideo Nomo. The two meet again Wednesday night (on ESPN) when Nomo starts for the Red Sox against the Mariners in what could be the Japanese sporting equivalent of the Super Bowl, "Roots" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" all rolled into one delicious transcontinental broadcast.

	“	It's the biggest game ever. ”
		— A Japanese journalist on the Hideo Nomo-Ichiro Suzuki matchup.

Japanese fans began looking forward to Ichiro batting off Nomo as soon as pitchers and catchers reported to spring training and the anticipation continued to grow when each player had an outstanding April.

Nomo pitched a no-hitter in his first game of the season and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his most recent start. Ichiro is hitting .333, is among the league leaders in hits and his No. 51 jersey has replaced flannel shirts as Seattle's official fashion statement.

This also is what is known as Golden Week in Japan, a week when many Japanese are on vacation. That means fans will be able to watch the game (which starts at 11 a.m. Thursday in Tokyo) instead of slaving away in a cubicle. As one Japanese journalist said, "It's the biggest game ever."

Or at least until next week, when Nomo and Ichiro likely will meet again at Fenway Park.

Nomo-mania swept both countries in 1995 and Ichiro-mania continues to spread faster than a sumo wrestler's waistline this year. And it figures to grow even wider. In what could be the most controversial vote not involving Katharine Harris, baseball announced last week that five million All-Star ballots will be distributed in Japan. On-line voting begins Wednesday and Japanese fans can vote that way as well.

In other words, pencil in Ichiro for the starting lineup in the All-Star Game.

Baseball maintains it planned to open the vote to Japan before Ichiro signed with the Mariners, but this is a potentially thorny issue. Should a country without a major-league team vote on the All-Star team? Should baseball open the vote to a country knowing that doing so likely will skew the vote totals overwhelmingly in favor of one player? Should baseball risk an international scandal just as a way to increase its marketing and merchandising reach?

The answer is simple. Yes.

For one thing, baseball already lets other countries vote for the All-Star teams. It distributed ballots to Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Mexico in previous years. It is distributing ballots to the Dominican Republic this year as well. Does anyone worry Dominican voters will unjustly tip the scales for Sammy Sosa? Does anyone worry Canadian voters will vote exclusively for Larry Walker? And for that matter, does anyone in Mexico care about the All-Star Game?

Even if Japanese vote for Ichiro by the millions, so what? The fans in many cities do the same for their favorite players already. You could fill up Steven Tyler's mouth with the all recycled chads Cleveland fans punch each summer.

Stuffing the ballot box for the All-Star Game is a long-established tradition, dating back to at least 1957 when Cincinnati fans voted eight Reds into the starting lineup. Before baseball limited the number of on-line votes a fan could cast, someone set up a program a couple years ago that threatened to put David McCarty into the starting lineup. Fans even voted Mike Schmidt onto the team in 1987 after he had already retired.

Somehow, the game and the country survived each time. And it will survive this.

Besides, if Ichiro continues to play as he has, he deserves a spot in the All-Star Game. Although, if Japanese fans vote Tsuyoshi Shinjo onto the team as a write-in candidate, it may be time to bring in the Supreme Court for a review.

Box score line of the week
Kerry Wood struck out 14 batters April 27, his highest total since undergoing elbow surgery. Curt Schilling struck out 12, but allowed 13 hits April 25 (so was he unhittable or very hittable?). And Deion Sanders went 3-for-3 with a home run in his first game since September 1997.

This week's award, however, goes to Anaheim reliever Mike Holtz for his perplexing line April 29 against Toronto when the Angels brought the lefty in to face left-handed hitting catcher Darrin Fletcher. The Blue Jays countered by pinch-hitting right-handed hitting rookie Luis Lopez. Rather than face the lefty-righty matchup, the Angels had Holtz walk Lopez intentionally to get to Jeff Frye and brought in Shigetoshi Hasegawa to relieve Holtz. Because pitches in an intentional walk are not counted in official pitch totals, Holtz wound up with this perplexing line:

0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, zero pitches.

Lopez, by the way, was making his big-league debut. He is the first major leaguer to be intentionally walked in his debut since 1989. "It's kind of embarrassing when they walk a guy making his first major-league at-bat to get to me," Frye told reporters.

Lies, damn lies and statistics
The Yankees won 327 games during Deion Sanders' absence from the majors and in between Deion's home runs, Mark McGwire went deep 190 times. ... Deion is back in the majors because the Reds finally wised up and put Ken Griffey Jr. and his bad hamstring on the disabled list over the weekend. Junior is 0-for-12 this season and has exactly two hits and one RBI since Sept. 12 of last year. He hasn't been healthy enough to bat more than once in a game since Sept. 11. ... Pedro Martinez not only extended his record to 8-0 with a 0.89 ERA in eight games against the Mariners, Seattle has never even had a lead against him. ... New York's Alfonso Soriano finally walked April 29th, his first walk in more than a year and more than 100 at-bats. At his current pace of one walk per season, he will break Rickey Henderson's walk record in the year 4065. ... Fred McGriff homered in his 38th stadium April 29th, breaking a tie with McGwire for the most by a player.

From left field
The 1907 Giants forfeited their season opener when fans mobbed the field, then won 21 of their next 23 games. The hot start didn't get them anything -- the Cubs began the season 20-4 and finished 25½ games ahead of the third place Giants. On the other hand, the Dodgers began the 1955 season with a 10-game winning streak, lost a game, then won 11 more in a row and went on to win the World Series.

Here are the dozen teams, that like the Mariners this year, played their first 24 games at an .800 or better clip, and how they finished:

Year	Team	Start	The skinny
1955	Dodgers	22-2	Won Brooklyn's only World Series
1907	Giants	21-3	Fourth place, 25½ games behind
1911	Tigers	21-3	Second place, 13½ games behind
1946	Red Sox	21-3	Won pennant, lost World Series
1902	Pirates	20-4	Won pennant (no World Series)
1907	Cubs	20-4	Won World Series
1977	Dodgers	20-4	Won pennant, lost World Series
1981	Athletics	20-4	Won AL West, lost in playoffs
1984	Tigers	20-4	Won Detroit's last World Series
1986	Mets	20-4	Won NL East by 21½ games, won World Series
1987	Brewers	20-4	Third place, seven games behind
2001	Mariners	20-4	Nine-game lead at end of April

Win Blake Stein's money
This week's category is: Of Course, Many Fans Thought They Voted For Pat Buchanan Instead.

Q. Who was the last rookie to be voted onto the All-Star team?

Power rankings

1. Mariners Great April: 20-4 record and a double date with Angelina Jolie and her brother.

2. Barry Pepper Uncanny performance but New York writers rooting for Thomas Jane to win Emmy.

3. Twins Great April: Twins in first place and Minnesotans only had to shovel snow 19 times the entire month.

4. Deion Sanders Next up: Rescue Lois Lane and prevent Lex Luthor from stealing California.

5. Dodgers Next up for Kevin Malone: reunification bout with Hashim Rahman.

6. George W. Bush Celebrates 100-day mark by opening up Pat Riley's hair for oil exploration.

7. Marie Bremont World's oldest person turns 115, re-signs with Orioles.

8. Ken Griffey Jr. Junior, shake hands with Wally Pipp.

9. Montreal Expos sign English radio deal -- but if you play Dave Van Horne's HR call backwards, he says, "Yuoppi is dead."

10. Florida Rays, Marlins request hand recount for April.

A. Catcher Sandy Alomar in 1990.

Voice of summer
"God gave Deion something he left off my plate."

-- Reds manager Bob Boone on Deion's return.

Jim Caple is a Senior Writer for ESPN.com.