TOKYO (AP) -- Baseball fans in Japan had an easy choice in deciding which team to root for in this

TOKYO (AP) -- Baseball fans in Japan had an easy choice in deciding which team to root for in this year's major league All-Star game.
The American League's roster included a record three Japanese players for the game, which was televised live nationwide in Japan.
Interest was especially high for New York Yankees rookie Hideki Matsui, who along with Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and Shigetoshi Hasegawa, were All-Stars -- the first time three Japanese players were in the game.
"I came to see the Japanese players, especially Matsui," said 26-year-old Nobuyuki Adachi, who watched the game on large TV screens at a Tokyo cafe, where fans cheered loudly for the Japanese players. "The Japanese players are great and just as good as the other major leaguers."
Baseball stardom may be that one spot of bright news for this nation plagued by a long slowdown and plunging consumer spending, grabbing headlines and hearts here by the day.
There's no doubt Matsui's No. 55 Yankee T-shirt is a hot-seller. Matsui, adored for years in Japan as "Godzilla," had made "55" special during his years as a slugger with the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants.
Matsui's autographed bat is selling for $21,000 at a Tokyo sporting goods store. And a huge face portrait is splashed across a Japan Airlines jet in a major campaign to encourage summer travel.
Japan Travel Bureau, the nation's top travel agency, estimates that more than 3,600 Japanese have gone on packaged tours to see major league games this year, mostly to see Matsui.