#Shortstops: Hideki’s Heroics
The thermometer in New York read a frigid 35 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8, 2003. But Hideki Matsui could hardly have gotten off to a more scorching start in his first game at Yankee Stadium.
Matsui, a three-time MVP for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants in Japan’s Central League, immediately settled into his new home during New York’s home opener against the Minnesota Twins. Following a groundout and a walk in his first two plate appearances, he approached home plate in the bottom of the fifth inning with the bases loaded after pitcher Joe Mays intentionally walked Bernie Williams.
The first pitch was called a strike against Matsui. Undeterred, he took the following two to get ahead of Mays in the count. After fouling off the next pitch, he laid off one more to bring the count full.
On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Mays hung a changeup high in the strike zone. Matsui instantly punished him for it, crushing the ball deep into the right field seats for a grand slam that extended New York’s lead to 7-1. Matsui, stoic for most of his first trip around the bases at Yankee Stadium, broke into a grin as he crossed home plate, the crowd thunderously cheering him on.
With one big swing, Matsui made history as the first Yankee to record a grand slam in his first game at Yankee Stadium. His homer would prove consequential, as New York emerged with a 7-3 victory. Matsui’s bat was later donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, where it is preserved in its collections.
Matsui finished the 2003 season the runner-up for American League Rookie of the Year following a campaign in which he batted .287 with 16 home runs and 106 runs batted in. Over his 10-year MLB career, he made consecutive All-Star Game appearances in 2003 and 2004 and he was named World Series MVP with the Yankees in 2009.
Following his 2012 retirement, Matsui rejoined the Yankees in 2015 as a special advisor to general manager Brian Cashman. In 2018, he was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame with 91.3 percent of the vote, becoming the youngest ever inductee at age 43.
Braedon Olsen is a Data Analytics intern in the 2026 Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development
