Yankees Hideki Matsui hit his first HR in eons during last night’s 5-3 loss to Kansas City, and Newsday’s Jon Heyman prescribes some time off for the center fielder.
One of the great things about Torre’s first Yankees teams is that the history, tradition and team came first. Now Torre himself appears to think too much about dumb things like how his managing of Hideki Matsui will play in Japan, and particularly about how to keep alive Matsui’s useless streak of playing 1,626 straight games.
That isn’t the fault of Matsui, by all evidence a team man. Torre says he isn’t playing Matsui every day merely to continue the streak. But whatever Torre says now sounds like a misguided justification. When a player as good as Matsui goes 180 at-bats without a home run, rest is normally prescribed, or at least tried.