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It’s pretty hard to keep the details of your personal life under wraps when you’re a professional athlete, but former Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui was able to do exactly that while pulling a fast one on a couple of his teammates (including Derek Jeter).
A number of Japanese pitchers had already made a name for themselves in the MLB prior to the turn of the millennium, but Ichiro Suzuki was really the first position player to prove guys who made a name for themself on the other side of the world could replicate that success in North America after he signed with the Mariners in 2001.
The following year, the New York Yankees decided to get in on the action when they signed Hideki Matsui, who was coming off a season where he’d won Central League MVP honors while leading the Yomiuri Giants to a Japan Series championship.
While he was never able to reach the heights Ichiro achieved, he was still an incredibly solid two-time All-Star who averaged .292 at the plate, hit 140 home runs, and contributed 597 RBI over the course of his seven seasons with the Bronx Bombers (he subsequently played for the Angels, Athletics, and Rays before retiring in 2012).
He also raked in $73 million in contract money during that span, but he was able to get a little bit extra thanks to the time he expertly fleeced two fellow players during spring training.
Hideki Matsui bet Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu he’d get married before either of them a week before he tied the knot
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Anyone who kept tabs on Derek Jeter over the course of his career knows he’s very familiar with the amount of attention the members of the New York City media like to devote to the romantic life of players on the Yankees.
However, Matsui was able to avoid that particular spotlight thanks in no small part to the efforts he went to in order to keep a lid on basically every aspect of his personal life to the point where the identity of his wife still remains a mystery 16 years after they sealed the deal.
In 2008, Matsui revealed he’d quietly married a 25-year-old woman he’d met in Japan a couple of years prior during a private ceremony in New York City at the end of March (which was reportedly planned around six months in advance).
The only identifying details he provided were that she held a “reputable position at a highly respected company” (which really narrows things down) as well as a crudely drawn sketch of his bride.
Matsui’s teammates heard about that development when they were preparing to wrap up spring training (he’d taken a day off to fly back up north to elope). All of them were caught off guard, but none of them were shocked more than Jeter and Bobby Abreu, who’d both placed a bet with Matsui after arriving in Florida with an unspecified payment reserved for the first member of the trio to get married.
Jeter jokingly quipped, “That’s not hilarious, that’s sad. That’s real sad. If he wanted the money, all he had to do was ask. He didn’t really have to do it.” As part of the agreement, the shortstop had a one-year window to find a legal partner because he didn’t have a girlfriend at the time, but it seems like he was ultimately forced to pay up (Abreu got six months because he was already in a relationship, but he was also unable to take advantage).
Well played, Hideki. Well played.