Dice-K is already pitching for Sox -- in Japanese ads

Newly minted Red Sox hurler Daisuke Matsuzaka donned a Red Sox uniform to make his latest pitch in Japan.

The Japanese baseball star, also known as "Dice-K," who the Sox paid $103 million to acquire has recorded a Japanese commercial hawking Asahi Super Dry beer, fully dressed in Red Sox regalia, showing that his star power in the Far East has already lent marketing clout to his new team. The endorsement happened without the involvement of the Red Sox, under rules that give Major League Baseball control over the team's trademarks outside New England .

Those rules aside, Sox executives believe there is a big market in Japan and locally for endorsements involving the team and Matsuzaka, and that their new pitcher will boost the team's popularity in Japan past that of a certain pinstripe-wearing rival with a Japanese player of its own.

"We want to be the team of Japan. The Yankees are very popular over there because of [Hideki] Matsui, but now we think we can get in over there as well," said Sam Kennedy , the Red Sox' senior vice president of sales and marketing. Matsui , the left fielder the New York Yankees snagged in 2003 from Japan, remains popular there and has several endorsement deals.

Kennedy said the Red Sox see a similar market for Matsuzaka. Even though any deals in Japan will be negotiated by Major League Baseball, with revenues divided among its teams , the Red Sox believe there is a benefit to raising Matsuzaka's and their own profiles in Japan.

"The more endorsement deals he does in Japan, in cooperation with Major League Baseball, the more brand exposure the Red Sox will receive. . . . We hope to significantly grow our fan base there," Kennedy said. "Hopefully you will see a few Japan-based companies advertising at Fenway Park."

Last month, Kennedy and other team executives traveled to Japan to explore Matsuzaka's and the Red Sox' marketability. The group was told that Dice-K could draw between three and five national endorsement deals in Japan, Kennedy said.

In the United States, Dunkin' Donuts has approached the team about working with Matsuzaka, and Kennedy thinks the pitcher could have the same star power here as he does overseas.

In Japan, he's already a pitchman for Nike and Asahi. The beer company recently began advertising here and was interested in a US deal with Matsuzaka, Kennedy said. But the Sox have an exclusive arrangement with another beer sponsor, Anheuser-Busch Cos.

Messages left for Asahi representatives were not returned.

Tom Manchester , director of sports marketing for Dunkin' Donuts, said the company hasn't officially negotiated for a Dice-K sponsorship, but would like to do an ad similar to those it did with Red Sox Curt Schilling , who in 2004 was cast by Dunkin' listening to a book on tape to learn how to speak with a New England accent.

"The win for us would really be to introduce Dice-K to what New England runs on, and that's Dunkin' Donuts," Manchester said. Dunkin's sister company, Baskin-Robbins Inc., has more than 800 ice cream shops in Japan, so Matsuzaka could be a marketing asset to the company overseas. too.

How many US companies want to use Matsuzaka as a pitchman will depend on how well he performs on the mound, said Richard Krezwick , managing director of the Massachusetts Sports & Entertainment Commission.

"There's going to be plenty of strategic marketers who are going to play a wait and see. Ultimately he is an unproven product," Krezwick said. "If you just signed a major endorsement deal with him, the worst thing that could happen is he begins the season 0-4. He's not Pedro Martinez yet."

Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com.