When Derek Jeter was asked whom he idolized growing up, he immediately mentioned Dave Winfield, saying the former Yankees player was "larger than life," and that he had a poster of Winfield in his room as a child. Then a wry smile flashed across his face.
"I also watched Matsui when I was younger," Jeter teased, as 40-year-old Hideki Matsui, born 14 days before his former teammate in 1974, smiled and raised his arm in mock protest. "I had Matsui on my wall as well."
The two former Yankees, now both retired with Jeter's exit from baseball last season, carried on like old friends during a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday morning. They're teaming up again, this time as headliners of the Tomodachi Charity Baseball Game on March 21 at Tokyo Dome, an event being held to bring support to children affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
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