Richard Griffin shows his Jekyll and Hide side in his latest article. Until the last two paragraphs he has an interersting piece on Ichiro and the way he has expended the Mariner's recognition and popularity with the local Asian community and in Japan. Being Griffin of course he can't help ruin it with a silly ending statement - " If the Jays don't make a run at [new Asian phenomenon Kazuo Matsui] this winter they are showing they are content with mediocrity and a safe bottom line." Take away the hyperbole though and there is an intriguing idea.
Being a Brit I see the obvious parallel with David Beckham. Beckham is the English soccer captain and is married to Posh Spice. He is extra-ordinarily popular in Asia, mainly it seems because he gets his hair cut a lot and has a penchant for wearing Sarongs. In last years World Cup in Korea England had to hire dozens of extra security guards to protect Beckham and could fill stadiums for training sessions, entriely due to the Beckham phenomenon. He was transferred over the summer from Man Utd to Real Madrid, United's 'old school' boss Alex Ferguson was convinced Beckham was more concerned with being Davoid Beckham celebrity than David Beckham midfielder, and complained that Beckham saved his best performances for the brighter spotlight of England games.
The interesting point is that Madrid hired him more for his marketing potential in Asia (and the hundreds of thousands of Beckham replica shirts they can now sell) than his footballing skills. They already had Raul, of Portugal, the best right-sided midfielder in the world, they did not need David Beckham. In baseball terms this would be like Texas trading for Derek Jeter, Beckham however is part-player and part-merketing campaign for Madrid. Madrid did not measure or evaluate Beckham as they would any other player.
The worth of Ichiro and Beckham to their organisations is far more than their value as players alone. Their star power puts them in a different class.
Kazuo Matsui might, it seems, be similiar. If he is how do the Jays decide his value ? Given the large Asian community here is he worth more to Toronto than to a franchise with a less culturally diverse catchment area ?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030814101052999