Japanese TV crews seek a home fit for a pitcher

Star Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is not yet under contract with the Red Sox, but the notoriously aggressive Japanese media yesterday were already scouting a place he might like to live.

Nippon Television sent a crew to film inside The Belvedere, a tony condominium building at the Prudential Center in the Back Bay where units sell for as much as $3.6 million.

This week, Red Sox management agreed to pay $51 million for the right to negotiate with Matsuzaka, whose signature pitch is the "gyroball."

Nippon Television wants "to show our Japanese audience what kind of apartments are available" in Boston, said crew member Kaori Oshima .

In 2003, throngs of Japanese journalists descended on New York when another Japanese star, Hideki Matsui, joined the Yankees. To satisfy Matsui-crazy viewers, Nippon filmed one of Donald Trump's residential projects, Oshima said.

Last year, Matsui purchased a $3.15 million home in Trump World Tower.

Boston real estate agent Diane Maloney, a Belvedere resident, said her building's view would surely appeal to Matsuzaka.

"You can see Fenway Park from there," she said. "You can see the lights on and everything."

KIMBERLY BLANTON

(Correction: A story in Saturday's Business section about a crew from Japanese television filming condominiums that pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka could purchase if he is signed by the Red Sox included a reference to a pitch called a "gyroball" that Matsuzaka had been said to throw. According to a story in Wednesday's Sports section, Matsuzaka throws no such pitch.)