Ichiro Suzuki had an outsized impact on baseball in Japan and the United States, and on Thursday, after he was announced as one of the four newest members in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, he subtly reminded us of what he has meant.
In Japan, Ichiro’s effort to be the ultimate player in the traditional Japanese style, restored a zest and unpredictability to pro baseball that a generation of big thinkers had gone a long way toward erasing.
When he came to the United States, Ichiro was a player like few remembered seeing, someone who lit up every game he played whether he was at bat, on the bases or in the field. He was a player who could dominate play with the same non-stop action that had made the game popular in America before anyone had ever heard of Babe Ruth.
In my limited experience with him, Ichiro has two kinds of press conferences, those he manages with pre-arranged questions for his prepared answers mean to display his skill with language and imagery, and those where he takes whatever questions he gets and is starkly honest and open with his answers. These latter ones are feasts.
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