Godzilla - Media Monster

I think that the writer was applying U.S. market rules and facts to Japan. In the United States, advertisement markets are very regional, and a big market like New York City gives an athlete more exposure than a small market like Milwaukee.

The author of the article obviously made the assumption that playing for Orix, Ichiro was in a small market, and therefore there was no way that he could have been exposed to a media market the size of Tokyo (like Matsui). Obviously, he never traveled to Japan; otherwise, he would have seen Ichiro all over the place. I even saw his pictures on the windows of a small drugstore in Hokkaido in the middle of nowhere years ago (before the Mariners).

On a related topic, I have to say that Ichiro has become more "open" to the press as of lately, at least it seems that he has opened up to the American press during the past few months. For instance, he just gave his very first interview in English on national TV about 3 weeks ago. While the Mariners were in New York City to play the Mets (not the Yankees) he talked to the very famous Bob Costas on HBO, and he even showed some of the English slang that he has learned (apparently taught by his Seattle team mate Bret Boone, mainly). I though he did a very good job and have no doubt that more interviews will be comming shortly.

I also heard that Matsui will follow soon, as he has been practicing his English with his fellow New York Yankees, especially with Jorge Posada.

I came to Japan many years ago, and I agree with the writer. I rarely saw him playing in Japan, so I did not remember how he stole a base in Japan. However, I can see him every day in Majors, so I suppose that Ichiro has become more popular than before due to his success in the Majors.

It appears that we have a couple of interpretations about Ichiro's popularity in Japan before and after moving to the Majors. Rosado-san and myself interpret it as how often we'd seen Ichiro, in the press and in advertisements. Ichiro earned more money doing advertisements in 1995 (or was it '96?) than he did playing baseball. The author of the article said "celebrity," which made me, at least, think outside of baseball. But even so, Ichiro took the front page of the sports newspapers more times than anyone else in 1995 and was one of the top front page faces (at least for the Kanto area's Nikkan Sports) for most of the second half of the decade.

UMASS-san brings things back to the realm of baseball. It is true that, unless you had Sky Perfect TV, you most likely didn't get to see Ichiro play other than the few scenes on Pro Yakyu News each night. So far as live coverage of Ichiro is concerned, his move to MLB has most definitely resulted in a higher audience. In that context, I agree.

I would have to agree with the first interpretation. The fact that Ichiro played for a "minority" team did not seem to diminish his popularity, especially with children. He was all over the ads (Nissan and Mitsuya Cider are two that come to mind). He became a household name when the only way the majority of the population could have seen him play was on the late night sports news programs.

Matsui would have been successful no matter where he played, but I think being on the Giants, with their television "monopoly," it helped him become as popular as he is.

morosuki