Bernie Loves Godzilla

The latest development in the coutship of Godzooky's father, i.e., Hideki Matsui is a glowing endorsement from Bernie Williams. He says that he could envision sharing the lush green in front of the Monuments with Matsui next year. Williams' approbation came as "Godzilla" was batting .143 (4-for-28) on the tour. He finished at .161 (5-for-31) with no home runs, one extra base hit (a double), two runs batted in (both in game 2), one run, and a stolen base. Also, Matsui played right and center field but not left.

The other free-agent Japanese player, third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, was a bit uneven. He had two home runs and six RBI but batted only .172 (5-for-29 and 0-for-13 in the last three games) with three runs, one double, 2 grounded-into-a-doubleplay, a sac fly, two errors in the field, and no endorsement from Bernie Williams.

Perhaps with the sudden dearth of hard-hitting major-league first basemen, someone should consider going after A-Cab, Alex Cabrera, who was the only non-Japanese player on Japan's roster. The former Diamondback batted .357 (10-for-28) with 2 home runs, one double, four runs, five runs batted in, one hit-by-a-pitch, and one doubeplay that he grounded into (though he was 0-for-8 in the last two games).

27-year-old shortstop Kazuo "Little" Matsui batted .423 (11-for-26) with 4 runs, 7 runs batted in, 2 home runs (in game 6), two doubles (in game 3), two stolen bases, a sac flay and one error. When does he become a free agent?