Baby Godzilla Goes West

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Here's a trade deficit that the WTO can't fix. Every year, it seems, Japan sends its best baseball player to America's major leagues while the U.S. ships back geriatric has-beens and misfits. This year is no different. The latest Japanese export is skillful, switch-hitting shortstop Kazuo Matsui, who announced on Nov. 17 that he would leave the Seibu Lions and sign with an American team. "It's been my dream to play in the majors," says Matsui, sounding like a replay of the 2002 announcement by the New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui. (No relation to Kazuo, although easily confused U.S. sportswriters have dubbed the shortstop "Little Matsui.")

A slick fielder who won four Golden Gloves playing for the Lions, Kazuo Matsui batted .305 with 33 home runs and 13 stolen bases this year. Scouts liken the switch-hitter to a stronger Ichiro Suzuki, the All-Star Seattle Mariners' outfielder whose impact on the U.S. game turned Japanese players into must-haves for major-league rosters. Matsui's move will be lucrative. Several clubs have already expressed interest, including the free-spending Yankees, who are already paying $6 million a year to last year's Matsui. This year's Matsui is likely to demand a Godzilla-like salary, but win or lose, Japanese baseball has been stripped of another superstar. Can you slap an export quota on shortstops?