A flash point for Sox, Matsuzaka
TOKYO - With a few questions left in a news conference to promote the 2009 World Baseball Classic, a Japanese journalist stood up in the back of a banquet room. He wanted to know how David Ortiz and Jason Varitek would feel facing Daisuke Matsuzaka.
No matter that the WBC doesn't kick off for nearly another year. No matter that Matsuzaka had far more immediate concerns - like, say, today's Opening Day start at Tokyo Dome, pitching in his home country for the first time since he defected for Major League Baseball.
"People always expect you to do well after your first year, but I think Matsuzaka did a great job for us last year," Ortiz said in response. "First year in the majors as a pitcher is tough, man, because especially in the American League, the American League has a lot of good hitters, and the way he walked in and did what he did last year, I think it was outstanding.
"I know, and everybody knows, that he can get it done better. But it takes some experience. I'm pretty sure he's going to have a great season, even better than last year, because he's an outstanding pitcher and he has great stuff."
Ortiz then answered the original question, saying, "It's going to be funny."
Fortunately for him, it's not going to be an issue, at least until next March. Far more important are Joe Blanton and the Oakland Athletics, the second-fiddle team that has been all but ignored in Japan.
Ah yes, Opening Day comes first. And this is Matsuzaka's first Opening Day start for the Red Sox.
With Josh Beckett suffering a lower back injury in his third spring training start, the opportunity was created for the madness, the obsession, surrounding this start. Sure, had Matsuzaka been starting the second game, it still would have generated excitement. It still would have caused a frenzy. Maybe not on this level, though.
"They love him, and Ichiro, [Hideki] Matsui," said Coco Crisp. "They really support their ballplayers. I'll like to see how it's going to be. I think it's going to be very exciting, all the [flashbulbs] going off."
If Hideki Okajima's return to Tokyo Dome occasioned enough flashes to power a small city, one can only imagine the results today.
Not everyone feels that way, though. When asked if he was excited to see Matsuzaka start in Japan, Manny Ramírez said, "Not really. Why should I be excited? We saw him pitch, like, 30 games in Boston. It will be the same."
Well, except for the rabid Japanese fans, the massive swell of light from the simultaneous flashes, the ceaseless chanting and cheering, and, oh, the fortunes of a country depending on his every pitch.
"Striking the balance is some of our challenge," manager Terry Francona said. "There's no doubt it's Opening Day, he's pitching in the country where he grew up, he's going to have a little bit more adrenaline. We want to make sure not just Daisuke but everybody is prepared to do what we're asking them to do.
"We'll certainly keep an idea of amount of innings, pitch count, while recognizing it counts. We don't want to do something to damage August and September and hopefully beyond that.
"I'd love to send him out there and let him try to pitch a complete game, like he probably wants to. We just probably can't shoot for that now."
That doesn't mean that all of Japan, from the journalists to the fans, won't be expecting Matsuzaka to last as late as he can in the first game of the season, something Matsuzaka acknowledged when he said, "I hope I will be able to pitch [many] innings." But with all the pressure, all the expectations, Francona keeps pounding one message: It's just one game. One game today. One game to begin the season.
There's no point, he says, in thinking about the next game, the playoffs - or the World Baseball Classic.
Varitek, though, answered the question, too: "By the time we get to next year, Dice will have another year under his belt with us. So, as far as my offensive attack against him, I'll come up with that by then. Right now I'm going to bunt. Then steal second."
First, though, he's got to call pitches for Matsuzaka. With a thousand flashbulbs going off and a country - not to mention his own team - hanging on every pitch.
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.
