Yankees introduce Matsui

News conference for newest player befitting head of state

? Even the mayor showed up to greet Godzilla.

For Hideki Matsui’s formal introduction to New York, he was given a news conference befitting a head of state: Hundreds of reporters and dozens of camera crews filled a hotel meeting room, Yankees manager Joe Torre interrupted his Hawaiian vacation, and Roger Clemens came up from Texas.

As he put on the famous pinstripes for the first time, Matsui turned around to proudly display his usual No. 55. Flashes popped and shutters clicked, and he grinned widely, giving thumbs-ups.

With a uniform number like that, some Yankees’ fans might be expecting a double Joe DiMaggio. But Matsui, a three-time MVP of Japan’s Central League, only has to hit enough to please owner George Steinbrenner, who is paying Japan’s biggest baseball star $21 million over the next three seasons.

The last Hideki who played in the Bronx — pitcher Hideki Irabu — arrived as a star and left, in Steinbrenner’s words, as a “fat … toad.”

“It’s tough to project when he’s never played in this league before,” Torre said. “He’s going to have to get adjusted. Robbie Alomar had trouble last year switching teams in the same country.”

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani sent Matsui a handwritten note welcoming him to the city, and David Letterman invited him to read the “Top 10” list on his show. The news conference was televised live in the United States on the Yankees’ YES Network and beamed back to Japan, where it was 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Yoshihiro Nishida, Japan’s counsel general in New York, was on the podium. In all, 12 people sat alongside Matsui on the dais — four more than the Yankees’ current total of starting pitchers.

Matsui, speaking through a translator, said he would learn English. For now, his best buddy on the Yankees will be second baseman Alfonso Soriano, who played in Japan as a teen-ager and learned the language.

“I would like to try as hard as possible to be one of the team members of the New York Yankees and to be accepted in the city,” Matsui said.

Matsui arrived Thursday from Japan to take a physical and complete details of the contract. He planned to return home today. One of the first stops he made in New York was at the World Trade Center site.

“I still can’t believe something like that happened,” he said. “It does hurt my heart.”

On his first day in pinstripes, he gave all the right answers.

“Today has been one of the happiest days of my life,” he said. “To be able to come to this beautiful city, New York, and to be able to play for the Yankees, the most beloved team in the city, I am really happy to be here. I want to do everything I can to help the Yankees win the World Series championship.”