April 6, 2004: Mets’ Kazuo Matsui homers on first pitch; Tom Glavine beats Braves on Opening Day

Kazuo Matsui arrived in the United States looking like a superstar. The flamboyant orange-haired shortstop with an “iron man” reputation signed a three-year, $20 million contract with the New York Mets before the 2004 season. His contract terms, including a travel allowance, housing, and interpreters, were almost exactly the same as the deal signed by his countryman Hideki Matsui with the New York Yankees the previous offseason.1 Hideki Matsui (no relation) went on to lead the Yankees to an American League pennant, and he hit a home run during the World Series.

The Mets were hoping for similar production from the 28-year-old “Little Matsui,” whose baseball credentials in Japan were outstanding. In Kazuo Matsui’s first nine seasons with the Seibu Lions, the switch-hitting sensation hit 150 home runs and stole 306 bases, earning four Gold Glove Awards, seven All-Star nominations, and the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1998. He also played in more than 1,100 consecutive games and helped the Lions win three Pacific League pennants.

“Matsui was as good as anybody in Japan,” said former Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who had recently been hired as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines, the Lions’ league rival.2

But after his Mets signing, Matsui’s erratic spring training confounded his teammates and the front office. He led the team with 19 strikeouts, played poorly in the field, and was injured twice. In the clubhouse, he drew quizzical looks with his pregame routine of wrapping strands of beads around his ankles, wrists, and neck, a ritual associated with the Japanese philosophy of Ki.3 The Mets moved prized prospect José Reyes from shortstop to second base to accommodate Matsui, but by the time Opening Day rolled around, some in the organization were wondering if their flashy Japanese star would ever begin to shine.

The sellout crowd of 49,460 at Turner Field was more interested in the Mets’ veteran starting pitcher than their new shortstop. Tom Glavine – a World Series hero and two-time Cy Young Award winner who left Atlanta as a free agent and signed with the hated Mets before the 2003 season – was booed loudly during pregame introductions and again when he took the mound.

“These were nasty boos … embarrassing the Braves Nation with their childish ways regarding one of the greatest players in the franchise’s 128 years,” wrote Terence Moore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.4 Glavine’s wife, Christine, anticipated the fans’ reaction and left their children at home in nearby Alpharetta. Two of their kids had burst into tears last season during Glavine’s first game back in Atlanta with the Mets.5

Glavine’s opponent on the mound was Russ Ortiz, who led the National League with 21 wins in 2003. With Glavine now in New York, Greg Maddux reunited with the Cubs in Chicago, and John Smoltz in the bullpen, Ortiz was the first pitcher from outside the future Hall of Fame trio who was scheduled to start for the Braves on Opening Day in 15 years.6

With 68 members of the Japanese media looking on, Matsui took his place in the left-handed batter’s box against the righty Ortiz at 7:36 P.M.7 One pitch later, the Mets had a 1-0 lead. Matsui turned on a 91-mph fastball right down the middle and sent it deep beyond the center-field wall. Matsui became the second player in AL/NL history to begin his career with a leadoff home run on Opening Day, after Emmett Mueller of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1938.8

“Wow, I don’t think anyone imagined this,” Matsui said. “I didn’t imagine it. It was an excitement I’ve never felt.”9

Matsui’s spring-training troubles were quickly forgotten. Teammate Mike Cameron told him before the game to “close his eyes and pretend he was back in Tokyo.”10 In Japan, he had earned a reputation for a “keen sense of occasion” and an “uncanny ability to surprise.”11 But nothing could have prepared anyone in a Mets uniform for this explosive debut. And he wasn’t done yet.

While Matsui’s first at-bat felt like a dream, Glavine’s first inning of 2004 conjured memories of his worst nightmares. He had gone 0-4 with a 10.35 ERA against his former Atlanta teammates the previous season. After just three batters, it looked as though the Braves were about to hand Glavine another shellacking. Rafael Furcal led off with a single and Marcus Giles sent the next pitch over the left-center-field wall for a 2-1 Braves lead. Then Chipper Jones drew a four-pitch walk and Glavine took his own long walk around the pitching mound to settle himself down.

“I had a timeout with myself,” the 38-year-old left-hander said. “I thought that things couldn’t possibly get any worse. It was time to make pitches and get guys out and stop just trying not to make mistakes.”12

Glavine limited the damage by inducing Andruw Jones to hit into a double play and striking out J.D. Drew. In the second inning Glavine, a four-time Silver Slugger winner, helped himself at the plate by driving in Jason Phillips with a two-out single to tie the game. Matsui came up for his second at-bat and lined a double down the right-field line to score Glavine and give the Mets a 3-2 lead.

Glavine retired 14 of the next 15 batters, pushing aside any lingering worries that he would falter once again in Atlanta. The Turner Field crowd continued to boo him every time he came on to the field, but he allowed just two runs and four hits in six innings pitched to earn his 252nd career win.13

Meanwhile, the Mets chased Ortiz early after he allowed six runs in 2⅓ innings. Mike Piazza snapped an 89-at-bat homerless streak (stretching back to August 28, 2003) with a long drive over the center-field wall in the top of the third. The Mets loaded the bases for Ty Wigginton, who drew a walk to score Cameron. Reliever Juan Cruz took over for Ortiz, but he issued a bases-loaded walk to Matsui to make the score 6-2.

Phillips completed the scoring in the fourth inning with an RBI double off Cruz to score Cameron.

Matsui reached base in all five plate appearances, including a double in the fifth inning and an intentional walk – a nod of respect from the Braves for his impressive debut performance – in the seventh.

Mets manager Art Howe was just as impressed, and also a little relieved, that Matsui’s bat had finally shown up. His rookie shortstop was “lying in the weeds on me (during spring training),” Howe said. “He had a lot of question marks and he erased them all very quickly.”14

Matsui continued to show his flair for the dramatic in his first weeks with the Mets, driving in two runs in the home opener (another win over the Braves) on April 12 at Shea Stadium. A month later, he led off a game in Arizona with a home run off Randy Johnson in a 1-0 Mets win. He also hit two home runs in a big win over Mike Mussina and the Yankees in early July.

But highlights for both Matsui and the Mets that season were few and far between. By early May, Matsui’s batting average had dropped to .230 and he lost his leadoff spot to Reyes in June. Injuries kept Matsui out of the lineup for most of the second half, but he rallied to lead the team with 125 hits. The Mets’ high hopes for the season ended in disappointment as they finished with 91 losses, sitting in fourth place in the National League East behind the Braves.

Matsui could not live up to the hype of his historic debut, but he played for seven productive seasons in the National League, including a World Series run with the Colorado Rockies in 2007. He returned to Japan in 2011 and played with the Rakuten Golden Eagles and Seibu Lions until he was 42 years old.

Author’s note 

This was the first major-league baseball game I was ever assigned to cover as a young newspaper reporter with the Gainesville (Georgia) Times. My story afterward focused more on Tom Glavine and his return to Atlanta, but looking back two decades later, Kaz Matsui’s shocking first-pitch home run is what stands out most in my memory from that night.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and video at You Tube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL200404060.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B04060ATL2004.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfVomBQ92-I

Photo credit: Kazuo Matsui, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Peter Abraham, “For Mets, It All Starts With Matsui,” White Plains (New York) Journal News, April 12, 2004: 2C.

2 Abraham, “For Mets, It All Starts With Matsui.”

3 Lee Jenkins, “Catching Fire After a Cold Spring,” New York Times, April 8, 2004, accessed online at https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/sports/baseball-catching-fire-after-a-cold-spring.html on May 25, 2024.

4 Terence Moore, “Fans Deserve the Boos for Treatment of Glavine,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 7, 2004: D1.

5 Moore, “Fans Deserve the Boos for Treatment of Glavine.”

6 In 2001 Greg Maddux was announced as the Braves’ Opening Day starter but he was injured by a comebacker in his final spring training start. John Burkett was an emergency replacement on Opening Day instead. Before then, Zane Smith in 1989 was the last Braves pitcher to earn Opening Day honors before the future Hall of Fame trio arrived on the scene. Coincidentally, Smith’s line of six runs allowed in 2⅓ innings against the Houston Astros matched Russ Ortiz’s on this day.

7 The Japanese press included 14 photographers, 22 writers, and 32 broadcasters. See Jeff Schultz, “It’s Tough to Imagine a Worse Way to Start,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 7, 2004: D3.

8 It is not known whether Emmett Mueller hit his home run on the first pitch of the season. See Jenkins, “Catching Fire.”

9 Lee Jenkins, “Smashing Start for Mets Begins on the First Pitch,” New York Times, April 7, 2004, accessed online at https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/sports/baseball-smashing-start-for-mets-begins-on-the-first-pitch.html on May 25, 2024.

10 Jenkins, “Smashing Start.”

11 Jenkins, “Catching Fire.”

12 Jenkins, “Smashing Start.”

13 David O’Brien, “Glavine Gets One Back,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 7, 2004: D1.

14 Jenkins, “Catching Fire.”