Watching the spring of the ever intriguing Shohei Ohtani, who struggled with the pre-season games then exploded once the season began, reminded me of the first Cactus League of the great — and it appears retiring — Ichiro Suzuki.
Ichiro surely had one thing I liked of a prospective player: a solid OBP. But a lot of the far Pacific imports who were ideally good hitters had struggled some, so I was a bit skeptical.
But my memory of him in that ST of 2001 was that he did not seem to really make great contact, so I wondered about Ichiro’s bat speed and how hard it really might be to adjust to pitchers largely throwing in the mid-90s rather thank lower-90s, along with unmerciful off-speed stuff?
Silly me. Of course Ichiro had the last laugh, winning the Rookie of the Year and MVP that first season, banging 242 hits and beginning a string of 10 straight seasons of 200 hits or more. Ichiro was made to hit, as we discovered, banging out an amazing 3,089 hits in the states alone. Now, remember, Ichiro did not start playing in Seattle till he was 27 years old, so that says a lot for just how focused and in control of his art the batsman was.
I have born witness to a lot of cool things over my time watching baseball games, and I mean some good live stuff. Rickey Henderson setting the stolen base record. Dave Kingman pitching an inning. The 1966 All Star Game. Jose Jimenez‘ no-hitter. Dallas Braden‘s perfect game.
I was among the crowd when Ichiro broke the single season hits record in 2004, banging number 258 for the year and nosing ahead of George Sisler for the single-season record. That year Ichiro finished with 262 hits, and it began a run where over five of the next six year he led the majors in hits.
But Ichiro did a lot of other amazing stuff during his career here. He led the majors in at-bats seven times and plate appearances five, making his career average of .311 no cheap trick. Ichiro won a couple of batting crowns, was an All Star 10 times, and an MVP and Rookie of the Year simultaneously in that memorable 2001 season.
Ichiro also possessed a great arm and fantastic glove (nine Gold Gloves), plus his speed (509 steals) to go with three Silver Sluggers.
And that was just in the States.
If we include Ichrio’s nine years with the Orix Blue Wave, we total 3,602 games, 14,826 at-bats, and 4,367 hits (.322), which included 573 doubles, 119 triples, 235 home runs, 1,309 RBI, and an amazing 2,078 runs to go with a .373 OBP.
It was announced this week that Ichiro is moving into the Seattle front office, and even though he will continue to wear his uniform and sit in the dugout, it does not appear Ichiro will play in any more games. Which is sort of bittersweet.
I do have this sad image of Willie Mays playing for the Mets, falling down on his butt during the World Series. I got to see Mays in his prime, and it was tough watching such a great player with no-longer-great skills.
Earlier in the week, I was watching the Athletics playing the Mariners, and Ichiro, playing in left, made a fantastic full-out diving catch on a sinking liner, I think off the bat of Mark Canha.
From that play, I would never have known that Ichiro was ready to retire. He did leave me with a great final mental image.
Thanks, Ichiro.
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