Kazuo Matsui

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Kazuo Matsui

Kazuo Matsui (松井 稼頭央)
(Little Matsui, Matchan)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Kazuo Matsui played in the Major League and Nippon Professional Baseball for 24 years. He had the nickname "Little Matsui" corresponding with the "Big Matsui", Hideki Matsui.

Matsui was drafted by the Seibu Lions in the 3rd round of the 1993 NPB draft, and he stayed in the minors in his first season. He hit .221/.245/.304 with 21 steals in 1995, and the Lions named him their starting shortstop in 1996. Natsui collected 50 steals with a .283/.307/.357 batting line, and he was 7th in hits in the Pacific League (between Koji Akiyama and Atsushi Kataoka), 2nd in steals (8 behind Arihito Muramatsu) and 9th in batting (between Muramatsu and Eiji Mizuguchi). Matsui was selected into the 1997 NPB All-Star Game, and he set the All-Star record by collected 4 steals in Game 1. He ended up hitting .309/.362/.431 with a league-leading 62 steals, and he led the league with 13 triples. Matsui also ranked 4th in batting (between Ken Suzuki and Kenji Johjima) and 2nd in hits (7 behind Ichiro Suzuki). He set the PL record for most steals in the Heisei era, and he won his first NPB Gold Glove and Best Nine as a shortstop. In the 1997 Nippon Series, Matsui went 6-for-22 but the Lions lost to the Yakult Swallows in 5 games. He won the Fighting Spirit award as the best player on the losing team.

The Osaka native extended his solid performance in 1998, and he hit .311/.370/.442 with 9 homers. He led the league with 92 runs scored and 43 steals, and he was 5th in batting (between Hiroshi Shibahara and Naoyuki Omura), 2nd in hits (2 behind Ichiro) and 2nd in doubles (tied with Hatsushiba). On June 28, he became the first PL player to hit a leadoff inside-the-park home run. Matsui won his second Gold Glove and Best Nine, and he won 388 points in the PL MVP voting to win the award over Ichiro, ending Suzuki's run of three straight MVPs. Matsui was 5-for-24 in the 1998 Nippon Series, and the Lions lost to the Yokohama BayStars in 6 games.

Matsui attended the 1999 NPB All-Star Game, and he collected one hit in each of the three games. He recorded a .330/.389/.482 batting line with 15 homers in 1999, and he led the league with 178 hits and 32 steals. Matsui also ranked 2nd in batting (.013 behind Ichiro) and 7th in doubles (29, 9 behind Tuffy Rhodes). He won his third consecutive Best Nine, but he lost the Gold Glove to Makoto Kosaka. Matsui then crushed 23 homers with a solid .322/.372/.560 batting line in 2000, and he led the league with 40 doubles, 11 triples, 308 total bases and 74 extra-base hits. He won another Best Nine. He was also selected into the 2000 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-8 in the 3 games. Matsui hit for a cycle on June 28 against the Orix BlueWave.

In the 2001 NPB All-Star Game 1, Matsui went 3-for-4 with 3 runs scored and a homer (against Satoshi Iriki) as the PL's leadoff hitter, and he won another All-Star MVP. He added a homer against Shugo Fujii in Game 2, but he was 0-for-4 in Game 3. Matsui ended up hitting .308/.365/.496 with 24 homers in 2001, and he was the first player in NPB history to steal more than 20 bases without a caught stealing. He ranked 9th in batting (between Pedro Valdés and Shibahara), 6th in hits (170, between Koichi Isobe and Norihiro Nakamura), 10th in runs (94, between Valdes and Frank Bolick) and 5th in steals (between Yoshitomo Tani and Hiroyuki Shibata). He won a vote in the PL MVP voting and won another Best Nine.

Matsui's 2002 season was one of the most incredible seasons in NPB history. He crushed 36 homers with a .332/.389/.617 batting line, and he led the league in games (140), runs (119), hits (193), doubles (46), triples (6) and total bases (359). He was 3rd in batting (between Alex Cabrera and Tani), 4th in homers (between Nakamura and Kazuhiro Wada) and 2nd in steals (33, 8 behind Tani). Matsui set the NPB record with 88 extra-base hits, and he also broke the NPB record for most homers as a leadoff hitter. He tied the PL record with 3 walk-off homers in a season, and he set the NPB record with 35 homers as a shortstop. Matsui was the first switch hitter to reach a .300 batting average, 30 homers and 30 steals in NPB history, and he won his 3rd Gold Glove and 6th Best Nine. Matsui was voted into the 2002 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-4 in Game 1. He won 471 points in the PL MVP voting, and he was 2nd behind Cabrera's 686 points; that was the year Cabrera tied the PL home run record. Matsui was 3-for-16 in the 2002 Nippon Series with a homer against Kimiyasu Kudoh in Game 3, but the Yomiuri Giants still swept the Lions. His 1,143 consecutive games played is still the PL record as of 2025.

The Seibu leadoff hitter crushed 33 homers with a .305/.365/.549 batting line in 2003, and he won his 7th, and last, Best Nine as a shortstop. He was 9th in steals (13, tied with Tomochika Tsuboi), 3rd in hits (179, between Johjima and Tadahito Iguchi) and 5th in doubles (36, 14 behind Kazuya Fukuura). Matsui attended the All-Star again, and he crushed a homer against Koji Uehara in Game 1. He then hit .273/.429/.455 for Japan in the 2003 Asian Championship, and Japan won Gold to secure a spot for the 2004 Olympics. Matsui then announced that he would become a free agent, and the New York Mets signed him with a 3-year, $20.1 million dollars contract.

However, Matsui struggled with the Mets due to several injuries. He crushed a homer against Russ Ortiz in his first at-bat, and he became the first rookie to hit a homer in the first pitch of the first at-bat on Opening Day. He recorded a .272/.331/.396 batting line with 7 homers in 2004, but he slumped to .255/.300/.352 in 87 games in 2005. Matsui's batting line fell to .200/.235/.269 in 38 games in 2006, and he was traded to the Colorado Rockies for Eli Marrero. He had a solid .345/.392/.504 batting line in 32 games for the Rockies in the rest of the season.

Matsui revived his career with an excellent season for the Rockies in 2007. He played 104 games with a .288/.342/.405 batting line and 32 steals, and he tied Brandon Phillips for 9th in steals in the National League. That was the year the Cinderella team was unbeatable down the stretch, beat the San Diego Padres in a one-game playoff for the National League wild card, then was unbeaten in the first two rounds of the postseason to reach the World Series for the first time in its history. Matsui was a key contributor, batting second in the line-up where he contributed lots of hits and stolen bases. No one has ever hit for the cycle in a major league postseason game. The two players who have come closest missed the feat by a single: Lou Brock in Game 4 of the 1968 World Series, and Matsui in Game 2 of the 2007 NLDS.

His good form in Colorado allowed him to sign a lucrative contract with the Houston Astros before the 2008 season, worth $16.5 million over three years. He sank back to mediocrity in his first two seasons with his new team (in 2009, his .991 fielding at 2B trailed only David Eckstein), then was absolutely awful at the start of the 2010 season. He hit .141 with a single RBI in 27 games before earning his unconditional release on May 19; he was still nominally the team's starting second baseman at that point, although he had progressively lost playing time to Jeff Keppinger due to his failure to hit. He then signed on as a free agent back with the Rockies, but spent the remainder of the year at AAA Colorado Springs, where he hit .262 in 82 games.

After the season, he signed a contract with the Rakuten Golden Eagles, ending his seven-year sojourn in the United States. While never a star like he had been with the Lions, he was a productive player for a few more years. Matsui hit .260/.294/.381 with 9 homers in 2011, and he led the league with 34 doubles. He then hit .266/.312/.408 in 2012, and he was 9th in triples (4) and 10th in steals (13). Matsui made it onto Japan's roster for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, but he was hitless in 11 at-bats in the entire event. He was voted into the 2013 NPB All-Star Game, but he was 0-for-4 in 3 games. Matsui ended up hitting .248/.311/.388 with 11 homers, and he tied Nobuhiro Matsuda, Toshiaki Imae and Katsuya Kakunaka for 10th in doubles (26). In the 2013 Nippon Series, Matsui hit .333/.357/.370 with 9 hits, and he led the Golden Eagles beat the Giants in 7 games to won their first champion.

At age 38, Matsui collected 32 doubles with a .291/.342/.430 batting line in 2014, and he tied Luis Cruz for 3rd in doubles with 36. Matsui reached 2,000 career hits on July 28 against Kenichi Nakata, and he also became the fastest player to reach 400 career doubles, doing so on August 14. Matsui ended up hitting .256/.324/.366 with 10 homers in 2015, and he tied Dai-Kang Yang for 10th in steals (going 14-for-16 at age 39!). However, Matsui slumped to .213/.291/.300 in 56 games in 2016, and he only hit .211/.277/.342 in 44 games in 2017. Matsui hit his 200th career homer on April 23 against Ren Kajiya, and he was the first switch-hitter to reach 2,000 hits and 200 homers in NPB history.

After his disappointing 2017 season, Matsui returned to the Lions in 2018. He went 6-for-39 in 30 games that season, and he announced his retirement. Matsui then managed for the Lions minor league team from 2019 to 2021, and he was their bench coach in 2022. He moved up to the big club in 2023, and he was 65-77 his first year at the helm. However, the Lions had a 15-30 record on May 26, 2024, and Matsui was fired.

Overall, Matsui hit .291/.344/.450 with 2,090 hits, 201 homers and 363 steals in 17 seasons in NPB. He hit .267/.321/.380 with 32 homers in 7 seasons in the Major League. As of 2025, despite his years in the US, he was 38th in hits (between Makoto Matsubara and Hiroyuki Yamazaki), 10th in doubles (411, between Shigeo Nagashima and Kihachi Enomoto), 17th in triples (65, tied with Hiromasa Arai and Munenori Kawasaki), 88th in RBI (837, between Hiromichi Ishige and Akinobu Okada), 14th in steals (tied with Norifumi Nishimura), 30th in runs (1,065, between Nakamura and Hiromi Matsunaga) and 48th in batting (between Arai and Koji Yamamoto). He had a 81.9% steal rate in NPB and 85% in MLB and 86.7% in the minors.

Record[edit]

Matsui was the first player ever to hit home runs in the first at-bat of his first two major league seasons (2004 and 2005). Remarkably, he then homered in his first at-bat of 2006. Jason Heyward then became the second player to start his first two seasons this way, in 2010 and 2011.

Related Sites[edit]

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