Piece Description

The short version includes is a sound-rich feature that moves from the game to the Negro Leagues museum. The long version includes a series of short interviews with Japanese fans, media, and Boston Globe baseball columnist Dan Shaughnessey, among others. INTRO: It's not just Boston that's cheering as the Red Sox enter the World Series. Japanese baseball fans around the world have been watching their favorite son, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, all year as he began his major league career in the United States. Hundreds of Japanese reporters have followed his every move from his first day in spring training onward. These reporters have transformed the press corps everywhere the Red Sox play. But for fans of Japanese baseball, it's a bittersweet moment, and it's a familiar feeling to fans of the old Negro Leagues in the United States. KCUR's Sylvia Maria Gross was there when Dice-K, as he's being called, threw out his first major league pitch in April against the Kansas City Royals. OUTRO: That was Bob Kendricks of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. KCUR's Sylvia Maria Gross reported this story on Daisuke Matsuzaka's major league pitching debut in April against the Royals in Kansas City, Missouri.