Matsuzaka Mania already reaching full frenzy

Miller: Five things to know

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Daisuke Matsuzaka stepped into his first Red Sox workout Sunday, carrying with him catcher Jason Varitek's equipment bag and several burning questions.

Such as:

Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka recorded 1,355 strikeouts in over eight years in Japan. (AP)

Is there any possible way he can live up to the expectations of the 120 Japanese journalists who have been assigned to cover him this season, the six satellite television trucks parked in front of the Boston complex here, the 130 kids who bused two hours from a Japanese elementary school in Miami simply to watch him work out Sunday, the entire major league baseball world and his own dreams?

Does he seriously throw the gyroball, the dastardly -- and likely fictitious -- mystery pitch that supposedly stymies gravity and handcuffs batters? Is he serious about learning the knuckleball from Tim Wakefield?

And: Will all this really cause Curt Schilling to learn Japanese, thus affording big Schill the tantalizing opportunity to filibuster in two languages?

"I'm trying to learn some conversational Japanese," Schilling said. "He's got a whole different gig here. There are 200 people here just for him. He gives the impression that he doesn't want it to be an inconvenience for other people, which is good."

Since the Red Sox signed Matsuzaka, building what they think is a strong enough rotation to fast-track them toward another World Series, Schilling actually has purchased his very own copy of Japanese for Dummies, downloaded some software and learned enough that he introduced himself to his new co-ace in Japanese.

And, someone asked Matsuzaka, how is Schilling's Japanese?

His translator put the question to him in his native language, and the personable Matsuzaka didn't miss a beat.

"Very good," he said -- in English.

Understanding Schilling and gallantly schlepping Varitek's bag from the clubhouse to the fields -- just like any other rube rookie -- puts Matsuzaka in position to get off to a roaring good start as he enters an existence in Boston that will make a fishbowl look spacious.

But a good story will become a great one if April comes and Matsuzaka wins games. And the thing he has going for him is this: With all of this attention, even if he only lives up to 25 percent of all of this hot air, he still could be a 20-game winner, an October player and a local -- and national -- hero.

This is flat-out nuts, is what it is. Some of it also is highly appropriate. How perfect is it that the satellite trucks are parked off Edison Way -- the street named for one-time Fort Myers resident Thomas Edison, who invented the camera to record motion pictures? As the generators growl, a gaggle of photographers stands sentry across the street at the training complex entrance waiting to shoot Matsuzaka's arrival and, later, departure.