If you aren’t familiar with the name Daisuke Matsuzaka by now, you probably can’t read … or see … or hear for that matter. That’s because the only person in America who’s received more press coverage since this spring is Anna Nicole Smith.

I usually wouldn’t write about something that everyone else is talking about, but Dice-K is too much to pass up. This guy is not only the real deal on the mound but has the ability to put people in seats like no one since Michael Jordan. If you think Dice-K has been over-hyped already, then stop reading. But if you want to find out what makes this guy so special and what a real gyroball is, you’ve come to the right place.

Nicknamed “The Monster” during his tenure as a pitcher for the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Pacific League, Daisuke Matsuzaka is a baseball force to be reckoned with. The 6-foot, 185-pound right-hander has everything going for him. There is no doubt that he will become a sporting legend.

If he was just a good pitcher I wouldn’t say that. It’s his intangibles that make him great. He has the “it factor” and a whole lot more. There is an intriguing mystery about him. He is from a foreign country and was an absolute superstar there; he throws pitches people have never heard of before. His name is sweet, and a team paid $51 million just to negotiate with him. Everywhere you go people are talking about him.

His fame reminds me a lot of Tiger Woods’. There are not many guys who everyone loves to watch regardless of who they are playing, and there are even fewer guys out there that you just can’t help but cheer for. Like Tiger, Dice-K is one of those players, and he’s only played in one Major League game.

To further prove this point, look at what he did in Kansas City. On the day of his first start of the season, the Royals put 23,170 people in the stands. That exceeds their per-game average by 5,000 people. That might not seem like all that big of a deal, but keep in mind this game was played on a Thursday afternoon, and the game time temperature was only 36 degrees.

On top of that, the media contingent on hand was the largest seen in Kansas City since Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.

Obviously public popularity alone can’t achieve a lasting impact in sports, unless you’re Anna Kournikova. But, as popular as Dice-K is, he’s at least that good at pitching. He doesn’t have just one dominating pitch, he has several. But it’s his ability to mix things up that will make it impossible for Major League hitters to figure out.

Dice-K has eight pitches in his repertoire, including a 95-mph fastball with late movement and a screwball that looks like a changeup. He is known to change not only the speed of his pitches but also the pauses in his delivery.

This gives the hitter an incredible amount of timing issues to deal with.

As a result, it is almost impossible to time Dice-K perfectly. You have to guess right, or he has to make a mistake for the hitter to have a chance.

Matsuzaka took full advantage of this in his first Major League start last Thursday, going seven innings and giving up just six hits and one run while striking out 10. If you haven’t seen the tape yet, I suggest buying MLB.tv just to watch how much some of the hitters miss by. He literally makes big leaguers look silly at the plate. He retired 10 straight at one point in the game and struck out the side on 14 pitches in the fourth inning.

Then there is the icing on the cake: a pitch called the gyroball. Dice-K has never admitted to throwing the pitch, but it’s considered likely that he does. The gyroball is a pitch thrown much like an American football.

It has a bullet like spin on it and is thrown mostly with the legs. The pitch looks like a fastball out of the pitcher’s hand but is noticeably slower and drops straight down due to gravity.

As the ball approaches the hitter, the spin makes the pitch look like a slider, but the gyroball is perfectly straight. (The physics are pretty crazy. Google it or check out the feature on the University of Illinois homepage.) By mixing in a nearly impossible-to-read pitch with an inconsistent delivery and seven other pitches, Dice-K is the master of deception.

Matsuzaka pitches tomorrow night for the Boston Red Sox against the Mariners at Fenway Park. I suggest finding a way to watch the game.