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The story
The Yomiuri Giants’ newly appointed manager, Hideki Matsui, reportedly paid a courtesy visit to Oda Shoki — the Yokohama High School pitcher the team picked first overall in the draft — but turned back after only about ten minutes. The report also noted that Matsui showed up without any materials, fueling doubts about how serious the club really is. That’s sparked a debate on 5ch over just how much name recognition Matsui actually has with an 18-year-old today, with the central argument being a generational divide: some say Ohtani or Ichiro would have made an impression, but Matsui just doesn’t register with the current generation.
Are They Even Serious About Courting Him? Doubts Raised After Giants Visit Oda Shoki “Without Materials” and Get Sent Off in 10 Minutes — “Did They Really Think Just Saying ‘Matsui’s the New Manager’ Would Seal the Deal?”
“It was basically no strategy at all…”
That’s the question reporters raised after the Giants, who forcibly selected Oda Shoki of Yokohama High School with their first-round pick, paid him a courtesy visit.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
You'd have to be at least in your 30s to have actually seen him play.
Feeling the generation gap hard.
They probably don't even know he exists.
Maybe if you're a Giants fan.
Not trying to bash Matsui, but there's a real difference between a guy who won and starred at the WBC and one who didn't.
High schoolers don't even know Ichiro.
If it's the Giants, Tanaka might actually land better.
And for skipping the WBC too.
I always pictured "Mr. Giants" as some funny old guy who could only speak in sound effects, but even so he had name recognition.
With Matsui, though, I think there are quite a few who genuinely don't know him.
The answer's already in: Japanese players don't make it big unless they go through NPB first.
For starters, Morii topped out at 152 km/h, so he's on a totally different level from Oda.
Plus he was a two-way player, so there was no way he was going to develop properly anyway.
I'm 41, not a Giants fan, but "Kudo at the Dragons" and "Matsui at the Giants" still give me a little "oh!"
What was even going on the year Matsui retired?
It wasn't just the games either; their fame was so huge they could go party in Roppongi every single night.
Same with CoroCoro Comic, actually.
Re: #46
Well, that was the bubble era for you — by the time Kiyohara came along, things had already cooled off.
He could talk about the gap between the majors and minors, what young players go through, and the upside of succeeding in Japan first — do that and the kid might actually sign.
But isn't he joining the Giants himself come the new year anyway?
Saw somewhere that next time they're planning to bring Matsui and Ma-kun.
If, mid-negotiation with the Dodgers, Ohtani and Yamamoto showed up and said "NPB's development environment is way better than the minors — building yourself up in Japanese pro ball first is a plus across the board for your baseball," he'd probably fold.
The Dodgers' minor league system has a better development environment than the Giants' farm team anyway.
Those two wouldn't know the first thing about development environments.
Why didn't they send Matsui?
Nagashima would've gone even knowing full well it might be a wasted trip.
First visit it's just the manager, second time the parents come out, and the third time you finally get to meet the man himself.
It's the old Yoshiwara courtesan method — visit three times to become a regular — you've got to show that kind of sincerity or you don't even get a word in.
Even if he does make it to the majors, that's like 5 years out.
By then Judge will be 39 and Ohtani 37 — both old guys nearing retirement.
Should've at least brought a box of Navona cakes (a classic Japanese gift-box confectionery).
A naive high schooler could've been talked into anything with the right materials, easy.
Even we know guys like Kaneyan (legendary pitcher Masaichi Kaneda), Nomo, Bass, and Oh.
Truly great players resonate across generations.
Knowing the name and nothing else is definitely a thing, though.
Background and Points of Debate
When Hideki Matsui was picked first overall by the Giants in 1993, he was already a nationwide sensation thanks to his home-run exploits at the Koshien high school tournament, and he went on to win World Series MVP in 2009. He retired in 2010, though, which means a player like Oda Shoki — this year’s No. 1 pick, born around 2008 — has no memory of watching him play in real time. The thread split between the older generation’s assumption that “surely he at least knows the name” and the view that “name recognition itself doesn’t carry across generations” — and neither side has actually confirmed how Oda himself felt. It’s also worth noting that the detail of the visit “ending in 10 minutes with no materials” comes from reporters’ observations, not an official statement from the Giants.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Livegalileo board) thread “[Mystery] Oda-kun (18) Completely Unmoved by ‘Manager Hideki Matsui’.”
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