As seen in Japanese on Bunshun Yakyu / 文春野球の日本語版はこちら
If you were to ask me who my favorite all-time Hanshin Tiger is, it wouldn’t take me too long to answer. Matt Murton, the fiery-spirited redhead who not only wowed fans with his on-field performance but endeared himself to them with his congeniality off the field as well.
We’re talking about the man who broke Ichiro’s NPB single-season hits record (214) in his first season with the Tigers (2010). He also played in four all-star games, won the Best Nine four times, and had the highest batting average (.338) in 2014. He finished his career with 1020 hits, most by any foreigner in team history, and a .310 batting average – good for 2nd all-time in team history (behind the legendary Randy Bass).
Off the field, he established himself as a fan favorite by gladly posing for pictures with fans, signing autographs and even having conversations with them. If you followed him on social media in the first half of the decade, chances are you saw pictures of him with his family – and with fans – at Universal Studios Japan on many an occasion.
Despite only being a Tigers fan for the final 1.5 years of Murton’s time with the team, I owe much of my passion for the Tigers to him.
The year was 2014, and I was looking for a way to use my creative writing skills together with my passion for sports. Someone had suggested I start a blog about the Hanshin Tigers. Come to think of it, I had heard about a player named Matt Murton, who occasionally attended a church in Kobe that my friends were also members of. I did a quick Google search, and virtually nothing came up in English about his current situation in Japan.
How could this be? Would his family and friends back stateside not want to know how he was doing? I set out to focus my blog on Murton and the team’s other outstanding American, Randy Messenger. Though it was just a wish of mine that the Murtons and Messengers “discover” me online, it did not take long for them to find me. Thanks in large part to the team’s outstanding showing in the 2014 postseason (which Murton unequivocally lists as his most memorable time with the team), slowly the word got out about this little website, Hanshin Tigers English News, along with its social media accounts. And that word spread to its original intended target.
Flash forward to the following season. Right around this time of year in 2015, my friend asked if I wanted to meet him at Starbucks in Kobe to celebrate my birthday. He gave me a location and time, and I made my way there after work. I entered the building, walked to the counter, and placed my order. Turned around, and… a rather tall, quite muscular, bearded redhead stood behind me waiting to get coffees of his own.
Not wanting to divulge too much information about who I was (figuring he would not know me anyways) or play the role of fanboy, I kept things short and sweet. Well, that plus he did not seem to be in the mood for chit-chat or pictures. After all, the Tigers had just gotten swept by the Orix Buffaloes over the weekend, 0-1, 1-15 and 1-10.
“Enjoying your day off? Or did you have practice today?”
“No, no practice. We got the whole day off.”
“Well, I guess you could use it after a rough weekend. Anyways, take it easy.”
That was all. No picture, no autograph. Just a surreal experience.
Turned out, though, that when his wife heard about our brief meeting, she explained who I was (as I said, his family had already found me), and apparently he replied that he wondered why I hadn’t introduced myself properly.
Well, sadly, Murton’s time with the Tigers came to a close at season’s end, but with it came a huge surprise for me. I got a text message from his wife, saying, “Matt wants to know your address.” Two days later, a box showed up at my doorstep, and inside it was a signed practice jersey, some trademark Murton wristbands, business cards, and more. Talk about mixed feelings – jubilant about the gift, sad about the departure.
From there, Matt tried to make a comeback to the majors, and excelled for a spell with the Chicago Cubs AAA team. In the end, he fell short and retired from the game soon after the beginning of the 2018 season. He has been working as a scout for the Cubs ever since.
Our relationship, though, has actually grown since we became geographically separated. He has guested on my podcast twice, obliged me with an interview for a scouting course I took, as well as for a newspaper article I wrote a few months back.
I really appreciate the kindness that Matt has extended to me, but even more than that, the heart that he continues to have for Japan. Last year after the earthquake in northern Osaka and the extreme damage done by the typhoon in western Japan, Murton was right on top of things. On both occasions, I got texts from him saying, “Hey, can you translate this into Japanese for me?”
“That’s awful :( Your friends and family are ok? If I wanted to say… praying for Kansai as it looks to recover from Jebi and will look for opportunities to help in some way… Is that appropriate?”
Seconds after I sent him my best attempt at sophisticated Japanese, his tweets went viral in the Hanshin world.
He didn’t stop with just a tweet, either. Just months later, he came back to Japan for the first time since 2015, doing multiple public appearances in order to encourage the people of Kansai. During that stay, he even found some time to have a coffee with little insignificant me. And true to Matt Murton form, rather than waiting to be treated with reverence and awe, he turned the tables and asked me questions about how I was doing, how my family was, and more.
I’ve only met Murton those two times, but I can confidently say that the classiness he showed Hanshin fans for six years was 100% genuine, and for that – even more than his excellence on the playing field – makes him my all-time favorite Hanshin Tigers player, hands down.