Hideki Matsui is on the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2018, having retired from Major League Baseball in 2012, but he’s already been inducted to another hall of fame while he waits to see if or when he’ll make the cut to the hall in Cooperstown.
Hideki Matsui was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame
The announcement comes as he waits to see whether he will be inducted stateside as well.
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
According to The Japan Times, Matsui will be the youngest inductee to the Japanese hall of fame at 43 years and seven months old, taking that record from Hideo Nomo, who entered the Hall at 45 years and change. He received a whopping 91.3 percent of the overall vote (he only needed 75 percent) to get elected in his first year on the ballot.
While many fans know him from his decade with the Yankees, Angels, A’s, and Rays in MLB, Matsui played in the Nippon Professional Baseball league for a decade with the Yomiuri Giants as well. He racked up 332 home runs and 1,390 hits in his time with the Giants before moving over to MLB.
While he didn’t attend the induction ceremony, his father, Masao, read a statement from Matsui:
“I played as a professional baseball player for 20 years, but I only played in NPB for half of the time, 10 years. I was given the honor of being selected for the baseball hall of fame, nevertheless. And I would like to express my appreciation to those concerned.”
The other players entering the hall with Matsui are Tomoaki Kanemoto of the Hanshin Tigers and Tatsunori Hara, a former manager of the Yomiuri Giants.
Matsui hasn’t received a single vote in his first year on the National Hall of Fame ballot, so he won’t be inducted into two halls in the same year. But the honor of being inducted in Japan clearly means a lot to him as that is where he spent half of his accomplished career.
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