Hideki Matsui | The Baseball Continuum

In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.

Godzilla came out last weekend, it was a big hit, it was (in my opinion) very good, and there are sequels already on the way and it’s director has also been hired to do a Star Wars spin-off.

But, of course, when most baseball fans think of Godzilla, they think of Hideki Matsui, the great Japanese slugger who had it as his nickname.

Did you know, however, that “Godzilla” actually once had a cameo in a Godzilla movie? In 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, he made this cameo (shown below in dubbed form):

Actually, he made two cameos: Later in the movie he shows up again practicing his swing indoors while the lights go out since Mechagodzilla is drawing upon Tokyo’s power-grid, if memory serves.

So, there you go: Hideki Matsui’s Godzilla cameo.

…Okay, so I guess you probably wish there was more here, so, without further ado, here are other connections between Godzilla and Baseball (I would like to thank the internet for basically giving me all of this information):

Shea Stadium was destroyed during a monster fight in Godzilla: The Series, the cartoon series that came out after the horrible 1998 movie that claimed to feature Godzilla but just featured an imposter that had his name.
Former NPB player Satoshi Kuroda is married to Chiharu Niiyama, who starred in 2001’s Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
Oscar-Nominated Actor Nick Adams, who ended up starring in Invasion of Astro-Monster (AKA Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) in 1966 (hey, he needed money), at one point turned down a offer from the St. Louis Cardinals to play minor league ball, mainly because he didn’t like the low pay offered.
David Straithairn, who plays a military leader in the new Godzilla film, was Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out and also had a role as Ira Lowenstein in A League of Their Own.
Thomas Tull, the CEO of Legendary Films and producer of the new film, tried out to be a replacement player for the Braves during the 1994-95 strike, and also made a failed bid to buy the Padres in 2012.