New York (CNN) -- To the delight of fans back home in Tokyo, Hideki Matsui drove in six of the New York Yankees' seven runs in their World Series-winning victory Wednesday and became the first Japanese-born player to win a series Most Valuable Player award. For much of his career, Matsui was a star player for the Tokyo Giants.



Matsui's key role in the series highlights the close ties between American and Japanese baseball. Playing in the Yankees' new stadium, the successor to the "House that Ruth Built," Matsui's performance brought to mind the key role that Babe Ruth played in the development of professional baseball in Japan, according to Robert Fitts, author of several books on Japanese baseball.



Fitts became a student of Japanese baseball in 1993, when his wife, an attorney, was transferred to Japan. Fitts, then working on his Ph.D. in archaeology from Brown University, was looking for something to get him immersed in Japanese culture. He wrote to 30 of the greatest Japanese ballplayers and was surprised to hear back from nearly all of them, with some sending gifts.



He's the author of "Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game" and of "Wally Yonamine," a biography of the first Japanese-American to play professional football and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan. "He was called the Jackie Robinson of Japan," Fitts said. Yonamine led the Japanese league in batting twice and won the MVP award as a center fielder for the Tokyo Giants.



CNN spoke with Fitts, who is based in New York, on Thursday.



CNN: What are your thoughts on Matsui's key role in the Yankees' victory?



Fitts: It's wonderful for Japanese baseball, of course. I would say that five years ago, maybe seven years ago, it would have been incredible, because people in America and in Japan weren't sure about the status of Japanese professional baseball. Many Americans and some in Japan thought that Japanese baseball wasn't as good as American baseball. ... Since then, Ichiro [Suzuki] came over, and he set numerous Major League Baseball records. ... And then Japan won both of the World Baseball Classics.



So Japan's baseball has already proven itself to be of high caliber. Most Americans, even if they don't know the history of Japanese baseball, recognize now that they play a very good game.



CNN: In Japan, how significant is baseball?



Fitts: It's the Japanese national sport. It's been so since the 1890s. Japan had no native team sports. In the 1870s. American and British teachers introduced team sports to Japan. Cricket was introduced, along with rugby and baseball. Baseball is the one that became the most popular.



In the 1890s, a Japanese high school team beat a team of American adults from the Yokohama Country Club. They beat them in three straight games. It took on national importance.



Japan, of course, was opened up to Westerners in the 1850s by Commodore Perry. The Western nations were far more advanced in technology, and Japan did a rapid modernization. By 1890, Japan felt it was ready to join modern nations as an equal, but the Western powers weren't ready to accept Japan.



CNN: How did the game develop after that?



Fitts: The biggest change came with two tours. The first was in 1931, an American all-star team whose big star was Lou Gehrig, and the bigger tour came in 1934. Both of these tours were sponsored by the Yomiuri newspaper.



In 1934, they brought over what at the time was considered the greatest baseball team ever. It included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Earl Averill, Lefty Gomez, Connie Mack was the manager, and we can't forget Mo Berg, the future spy [for the United States in World War II].



The '34 tour was significant for two reasons: The first is that relations between Japan and the U.S. were really rocky at that point. There was a very significant
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