12/27: Matsui Not to Participate in WBC
Posted by: Seamus
According to YES Network, Hideki Matsui has decided not to play for Japan in the World Baseball Classic scheduled for March.
Well honestly, it looks like this whole WBC is turning into one big mess anyway. It's at the wrong time of the year, too many guys opting out, too many players playing for countries they never lived in before, and too much politics involved (Cuba is not allowed to send its players, and as a result, Puerto Rico has withdrawn as a host). I could really do without it. It's certainly not big enough to risk injury over, especially during spring training when guys aren't yet in top shape. If a player wants to go that's fine, but I certainly don't have a problem with any of the Yankees' players focusing on their job with the Yankees, who I watch 6 months out of the year.
``The reason I decided to go to the United States was to try and become a world champion with the Yankees, and I fear that chasing two goals might get in the way of that dream,'' Kyodo quoted Matsui as saying in a statement.
Well honestly, it looks like this whole WBC is turning into one big mess anyway. It's at the wrong time of the year, too many guys opting out, too many players playing for countries they never lived in before, and too much politics involved (Cuba is not allowed to send its players, and as a result, Puerto Rico has withdrawn as a host). I could really do without it. It's certainly not big enough to risk injury over, especially during spring training when guys aren't yet in top shape. If a player wants to go that's fine, but I certainly don't have a problem with any of the Yankees' players focusing on their job with the Yankees, who I watch 6 months out of the year.
