After playing his final game with the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome last Saturday night, center fielder Hideki Matsui left the field for the clubhouse and began taking off his uniform so he could shower. As he did so, his fans remained in their seats, chanting his name and demanding his return so loud and so long that Matsui finally had to put his uniform back on and go back to the field for an emotional curtain call.

MATSUI! MATSUI! MATSUI!

"I was truly moved, extremely moved by everyone's reaction," said Matsui, who can now officially negotiate a contract with major league teams. "What went through my mind was, there is no way you should ever forget this moment. The people are expecting a lot from me and I will value this and treasure this and I have to live up to their expectations."

	Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui is likely going to play for the Yankees in 2003.

MATSUI! MATSUI! MATSUI!

"Matsui has always been a class act and that's why he is so loved. These fans are heartbroken," said Bill Bickard, a Bay Area native working in Tokyo and serving as the English p.a. announcer for the major league All-Star tour of Japan. "When he came back on the field, the woman who does the Japanese p.a. next to me had tears in her eyes.

"We don't have a parallel like this for American baseball to lose a player like Matsui. The Giants are the national team. They're like the Yankees and Cowboys rolled into one."

Rising sons or setting sun?
For decades, U.S.-Japan baseball trade was strictly one way. The majors sent Japan the likes of Randy Bass, Warren Cromartie and "The Bad News Bears Go to Japan" while Japan sent the majors nobody. All that changed in 1995 when Hideo Nomo ended the trade deficit. Since then, more than a dozen Japanese players -- including some of the country's very best -- have made their way to the major leagues, winning three rookie of the year awards and one MVP.

But as Japanese fans turn off the Giants to turn on the Mariners, and as cargo ships crammed with Yankees apparel beginning sailing east, the question is whether losing the league's best pitcher (Nomo), best player (Ichiro) and best home run hitter (Matsui) is all that good for Japan baseball.

Little Matsui and other prospects

OSAKA, Japan -- By whipping the major league All-Stars the first three games, the Japan All-Stars clearly demonstrated that Hideki Matsui is not the only top prospect scouts should be watching. In fact, he may not even be the best prospect named Matsui. That distinction could go to Seibu Lions shortstop Kazuo Matsui, also known as Little Matsui. "He's far and away the better player," Seibu teammate Alex Cabrera said. Matsui, 27, is a switch-hitter with power and speed -- he hit .332 with 36 home runs and 33 stolen bases this season -- and a slick fielder. He's eligible for free agency next year but one scout in Japan says he thinks there is still a decent chance Seibu may post Little Matsui as the Orix Blue Jays did with Ichiro the winter before he would have become a free agent two years ago. By posting a player, a Japanese team essentially auctions the exclusive rights to negotiate with him. "You can't help but like him," manager Art Howe said. "Everything is great about him. He's got great range. He's a switch-hitter and he's got some pop." Matsui says he would like to play in the majors in the future. While major league teams wait to see when that time may be, they can consider powerful Osaka Kintetsu third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, who filed for free agency last month and expressed interest in playing in the majors. Nakamura hit 42 home runs with 115 RBIs. "I didn't like what I saw tonight," Howe joked Tuesday when asked to assess Nakamura after the third baseman hit a three-run homer against the major leaguers. "He's got a little life in his bat. He's very aggressive at the plate." The Mets or any other major league team interested in Nakamura, 28, will have to outbid their Japanese counterparts. Many think the Yomiuri Giants will go hard after Nakamura to replace Big Matsui in the lineup when he signs with a big league team. Yokohama Bay Stars closer Takashi Saito is also looking to sign with a major league team. He's not considered to be as good as Seattle closer Kaz Sasaski and his age works against him -- he'll be 33 next year. And then there is Cabrera, the Venezuelan who hit a record-tying 55 home runs this season. In addition to Japan, he's played in Venezuela, Mexico and Taiwan, and says he would love to return to the majors -- the Diamondbacks sold his contract to Seibu a couple years ago -- though it's doubtful any big league team would pay a 31-year-old first baseman/outfielder anywhere near the salary Cabrera makes here. Then again, remember how valuable Cecil Fielder was after returning from a tour of Japan. "If someone gives me a chance in the majors," Cabrera said. "I tell you and my friends that I can hit more than 40 jacks." --Jim Caple

"It's really good for players like Ichiro to have an opportunity to live out their dreams by going to the majors," said Leon Lee, who played a decade in Japan and is the father of the Florida Marlins' Derrek Lee. "But in the long run, I've always had the feeling that you don't have a huge country and a lot of players to draw from, so there has to be some limit, some sort of balance. You can't just say that everyone who wants to play in America can just jump on a plane and fly over there because it will bring the game down here.

"When Matsui leaves it will be great for baseball, but how do you replace Matsui?"

That's one view. Japanese icon Sadaharu Oh has another. Oh hit 868 home runs during his legendary career, never got the chance to play in the major leagues and says he is jealous of modern players such as Ichiro and Matsui, who can. He also says he is proud of them.

"I think it's definitely a positive thing for Japan," Oh said. "When you think about the fact that Ichiro has achieved success and that Matsui probably will achieve success. The players at the grass roots level will try to follow and achieve the same thing. Then the level of the baseball will rise as well."

That's the philosophy taken by major league baseball, which feels that the short-term lowering of interest in Japan League baseball will be offset in the long term by an overall increase in all baseball, including the majors. This week's All-Star tour is set up to promote the game here and the leagues are close to finalizing a series between the Mariners and Athletics in Tokyo to open the season next April.

While ratings declined substantially for Giants broadcasts and attendance slipped throughout the league when Ichiro moved to the major leagues, polls by two Japanese newspapers indicated that interest in baseball overall has risen. Those results are backed up by the TV ratings for this week's major league All-Star Japan Tour. Sunday's game drew a superb 25 rating.

Robert Whiting is the author of "You Gotta Have Wa," a superb, essential history of Japanese baseball and its role in the culture. He sees Japan becoming a "defacto farm system" for the U.S.

"I would say that it hurts baseball here in the short run," he said. "The Giants TV ratings dipped into the single digits several times in the past two years, something that has never happened before. Their baseball looks dry and mechanical next to the Mariners, whose games everyone watches on the tube.

"Of course, it helps it in the long run. The question is, how long is the long run? 10 years? 20?"

Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe called Ichiro a traitor for leaving Japan two years ago, but he apparently has changed his attitude for Matsui. Unable to re-sign their star player, the Giants are strongly believed to be facilitating his move to New York. The assumption that Matsui will sign with the Yankees is so strong that when a Japanese photographer inquired about shooting a photo of Matsui, Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams together, one major league official responded by saying it was probably a good idea.

Will Godzilla flatten New York?
Ichiro was Japan's best player and so popular that he appeared on the cover of Newsweek's international edition as "The New Face of Japan" way back in 1996. But he also played for the Orix Blue Wave, Japan's equivalent of the Kansas City Royals. Matsui, however, is a home run champion with Japan's most popular team, has been a national hero since he starred in the country's annual high school tournament and his power is so respected that his nickname is Godzilla. Thus, his departure has even more significance than Ichiro's.

His arrival, almost certainly in New York, also would be different.

While Ichiro played under the suffocating scrutiny of the Japanese media, he at least had the benefit of playing in Seattle, where there was less pressure from U.S. reporters. When he showed little of his eventual talent during spring training, there was no panic and few anxious stories about his ability to perform at the major league level.

That would not be the case in New York, where owner George Steinbrenner criticized Hideki Irabu as a "fat, pussy toad." Yankees fans booed Giambi when he struggled at the start of the season last year. They won't hesitate to let Matsui have if it he starts slowly as well.

"I'm aware of that," Matsui said. "If that happens, then I have to overcome that. To prevent that, I must do my best."

One positive sign is that Matsui, 28, has shown a willingness to deal with the media Ichiro did not. While Ichiro speaks to only one Japanese pool reporter in the United States and somewhat limits his availability to the American media, Matsui answers questions briefly for both Japanese and American reporters every day on this tour. He also handles the questions comfortably, something that will greatly help him in New York.

"I think everything will be a big adjustment," Matsui said. "Culturally and the living environment. Baseball-wise, I have to keep to myself and do my best to adjust."

	“	Matsui will do well and will improve the Yankees. He'll be the most fundamentally sound player they have. It will be interesting to see where they bat him, maybe sixth or seventh. Who he has hitting around him will help him. They have a good player coming. ”
		— Warren Cromartie, a former player in both Japan and the majors

Matsui has 332 career home runs and is coming off an MVP season for the Japan champs, but he has yet to homer in the major league tour. While he has been receiving all the headlines and the applause, his fellow Japan All-Stars have outshined him. With daily reports on his performance and wild Japanese rumors papers that Steinbrenner may fly into see him, he acknowledged he's playing under a fair amount of pressure.

"It's not an easy situation, with so many things happening at once," Matsui said. "But since I'm going to the states, I have to use this situation as a way to learn so that I can adjust and be able to respond to the situations next year."

A Japanese reporter stopped Giambi after batting practice one day, handed him a gameboard with the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 55 and 73 printed on it, and asked him to point to the number of home runs he thought Matsui will hit. Giambi diplomatically declined.

But that's the question everyone wants answered. How will Matsui perform and should you draft Godzilla for your fantasy league? Ichiro was an immediate success, but can a big, left-handed power hitter make the same quick switch to the major leagues?

"Matsui will do well and will improve the Yankees," said Warren Cromartie, who played in both Japan and the majors. "He'll be the most fundamentally sound player they have. It will be interesting to see where they bat him, maybe sixth or seventh. Who he has hitting around him will help him. They have a good player coming."

Cromartie thinks Matsui will hit 30-35 home runs -- "he'll have a short porch in Yankee Stadium" -- but that there is simply no way he will have the impact Ichiro had. "Ichiro is a great fielder with a great arm and great speed. Matsui is an average fielder with an average arm."

Sayonara, Japan
Matsui has been greeted by loud ovations and chants of "Home Run, Matsui" throughout the tour, whether he was playing in Tokyo or as far south as Fukuoka. He knows he is leaving behind millions of adoring fans, a successful career, a league, a country and a way of life all for the uncertainty of playing for Steinbrenner.

"The decision wasn't easy," he said, "but my passion, will and determination to play in the major leagues overcame that."

MATSUI! MATSUI! MATSUI!

Matsui said he greatly appreciated Saturday's loving response from his fans, but it did not make him re-evaluate his decision to leave Japan in any way. "I had already made up my mind. What I have to do now is respond to the warmth of the people who want me to do well and play up to the best of my ability for them.

And as far as the effect his departure will have on the sport and the country he leaves?

"Of course there are concerns," he said. "But even after I leave Japan, new stars will arise. There will be someone new who will pop up and put people in awe. It's not only my responsibility to raise interest in Japanese baseball, it's everyone's responsibility."

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at cuffscaple@hotmail.com.