Ichiro! Ichiro! Ichiro!

Joe and Ichiro at the Safeco Field press conference this evening (ET)

by Ken

I got home this evening a little before 7:30 ET, still unsure what I was going to write about, but with an eye on James Surowiecki's new New Yorker "Financial Page" piece about banking regulation, picturesquely titled "Bankers Gone Wild" -- hey, for once my copy of the magazine was in the mailbox on Monday! So I flipped the TV in the kitchen on in anticipation of the 7:30 Big Bang Theory rerun, and what should I see -- with the set still tuned to the Yankees' YES Network (from the disastrous weekend series in Oakland, with those four consecutive one-run losses, a Yankee first) -- but a press conference from Safeco Field in Seattle, where the team begins a series against the Mariners tonight, featuring manager Joe Girardi and, yes, new Yankee Ichiro Suzuki! A clean-shaved Ichiro looking pretty sharp in a pinstripe suit, and speaking -- still through an interpreter -- with boundless smarts and tact.


It isn't going to be exactly new for Ichiro playing tonight in Seattle, where he's been playing for 12 seasons now. Only tonight he'll be on the visiting side. Zounds!

Now I see that there have been rumors of a trade for Ichiro for several days. As Joe Girardi explained in the press conference, the impetus came when left fielder Brett Gardner, the Yankees' one bigtime speed guy, underwent what the team was told was likely season-ending surgery. Gardy, Joe explained, is the one guy in the lineup who can disorient opposing pitching and defense with his speed. Of course Ichiro has been doing that since he came to the U.S. Major Leagues, already 27, in 2001.

from espn.com (click to enlarge)

I understand that Ichiro isn't quite the player he was. After all, he'll be 39 in October, and last year he had his first sub-.300 season. But even after hitting .272 last season and hitting .261 so far this season, he still has a Major League career average of .322, and he may be, all-around, the most skilled and consistent player I've seen over the last several decades -- an offensive machine, a great base runner, and a supremely able outfielder. True, he hasn't played much left field (during the press conference, though, he pointed out that the last time he did was in a playoff game at Yankee Stadium!), but for a player of his skills and smarts, it's hard to imagine that the transition will be difficult.

It seemed noteworthy that at the press conference manager Girardi declined to talk lineup until he'd had a chance to talk to his new player privately and discuss his preferences. Joe said he thought Ichiro has earned that.


For 12 years now Ichiro has been a unique treat to watch on the field. Do I have to add that with the Mariners Ichiro has inflicted enormous on-the-field damage to his new team? And while it's true that other outstanding players have made this leap -- one thinks in particular of the steady trickle of hated Red Sox who became local heroes -- I don't recall one coming over overnight.

Those gone-wild banksters can wait a day; they'll be just as unruly tomorrow. Tonight it looks like I'm going to be up late, otherwise occupied.


GAME-TIME UPDATE: 31

That's Ichiro's Yankee uniform number. He had said he wouldn't ask for his old Mariners number, 51, last worn by longtime Yankee center fielder Bernie Williams. He's batting eighth, and with right fielder Nick Swisher still out, he's playing in right. By coincidence the Yankee starting pitcher is a countryman of Ichiro's, Hiroki Kuroda. In the bottom of the first, Ichiro snagged a line drive for the final out, helping Hiroki escape a runners-on-second-and-third crisis of Alex Rodriguez's making.)

THIRD-INNING UPDATE: Before his first non-Mariners at bat Ichiro got a rousing reception from the Seattle fans, then promptly drove a hit up the middle -- and notched his first Yankee stolen base.

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