After years of cavorting around in the search for Miss Right, New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui has finally hit a home run straight down the aisle, according to Shukan Taishu (4/14), announcing late last month that he had married on March 26.

"His wife is a 25-year-old woman from Toyama," a sports newspaper reporter tells Shukan Taishu. "They met through a friend during the off season in 2006, and kept up a long distance relationship over the phone and through e-mail. Matsui proposed to her at the end of last year, and they had a betrothal ceremony in Ishikawa Prefecture in January."

Matsui's surprise announcement of his nuptials -- not even his teammates were aware, apparently -- puts an end to years of rumor about when the 33-year-old would tie the knot.

"The media really got excited over his links with actress Miki Sakai in 2004, and then again the next year with another actress, Naho Toda. Matsui's father, Masuo, really fueled the rumors when he told the media his son had introduced him to a girlfriend," a reporter covering the entertainment beat for a sports newspaper says. "Everybody thought Matsui's thing with Toda was going to be the real thing."

Neither relationship went the distance, though, and Matsui found himself with a reputation for being unable to woo the women he wanted. However, he apparently convinced his wife with trips around New York, fancy meals and dates away from the constantly prying eyes of the media.

But it seems Matsui's reputation for being unable to consummate relationships was somewhat undeserved.

"Godzilla (Matsui's nickname) was quite a playboy, right back to his time with the Yomiuri Giants, when he was always managing to slip away secretly with some actress. I think the diamond is not the only field he's played," says one reporter, who's known Matsui since the beginning of his professional career. "I don't think that's such a bad thing. Godzilla is the type who keeps tirelessly working on something until he finds exactly what he is looking for."

Matsui's search for Miss Right, then, echoes his approach to his baseball career, the men's weekly says.

"Matsui elected to use the number 55 on his shirt because it was the record number of home runs Sadaharu Oh hit in a season of professional Japanese baseball. He's taken the same approach with his bats, using only those hand-made by the master bat maker Gojuichi Kubota," the long-time reporter on Matsui tells Shukan Taishu. "He's even suggested minor improvements that could be made to the bats to make them send baseballs further into the distance after they're hit. Matsui's life is all about a constant search for the best." (By Ryann Connell)