No Ichiro Love

[Bark's Lounge]

I was surprised to not see an Ichiro Suzuki thread to honor his legacy. Metrics probably do not do him much justice, but he was one of a kind.

 

Certainly a first ballot HOFer. He is the embodiment of baseball, maybe not in modern terms with the 3 true outcomes.

 

The man was a magician, he was phenomenom and a joy to watch on the field of play. Whether it be his unorthodox super successful batting approach, or his defense and cannon arm in the outfield.

 

We were damn lucky to see this man take the field in MLB and I will certainly miss him.

 

Ichiro Suzuki is of the baseball likes that we will never see again. His ending was one of fairy tales.

[PseudoSABR]

He showed off that arm in the two-game series, as well.  He should look to coming back as a pitcher...

[cardsfan]

OPS being all the rage..... his .757 turns some people off. Not me, but, he has been hanging on for 4 or so years.

[Danchat]

I don't think there was a thread because most of us talked about him when he originally officially decided to retire last year. I'm not sure if it was worth returning to that discussion just for the 2 games he came back for this year.

[Otto von Ballpark]

There was this thread last year, on the occasion of his first "retirement":

 

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/29714-article-into-the-sunset-ichiro-against-the-twins/

[biggentleben]

 

OPS being all the rage..... his .757 turns some people off. Not me, but, he has been hanging on for 4 or so years.

 

OPS was all the rage... in 1997.

 

WAR is what you hear in arguments now, and since 2000, Ichiro is 9th in fWAR. The rest of the top 10 include Bonds, ARod, Pujols, Trout, Miggy Cabrera, Carlos Beltran, Utley, Beltre, and Chipper Jones. Essentially a whole list of Hall of Famers are near-HOFers. Incredibly, since 2000, he's by far the best baserunner and defensive right fielder that the game has seen. It's not particularly close in either respect.

[TheLeviathan]

Imagine if he had played his whole professional career in the big leagues.  His numbers would be quite extraordinary I think.

[biggentleben]

 

Imagine if he had played his whole professional career in the big leagues.  His numbers would be quite extraordinary I think.

 

The insane part is that he had slowed significantly by the time he came stateside, and he's still the best baserunner in the game this millennium by a decent margin.

 

Also, the whole "he could have been a home run hitter if he wanted" bit was not just BS. He has records still in multiple Japanese stadiums for the longest game home run ever hit there, and multiple recent big leaguers swear the deepest home run they saw in their career was an Ichiro BP homer.

[Wyorev]

Joe Posnanski wrote a great piece on how Ichiro was truly one of a kind. I remember it well, a fun read. I was surprised it was in 2010.

You probably would enjoy it. (By “you” I mean a person who would read TD!

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2010/03/25/unique-ichiro

[Aichiman]

Having lived 18 years in Minny, I gave up on my hometown Mets and became a Twins fan.  Two days ago I celebrated my 20th year as an expat in Japan, am I'm still a Twins fan.  The series between the A's and Mariners was a lot of fun, and it gave the Japanese the chance to say goodbye to perhaps the greatest Japanese player of all time.  Most realize that Ichiro was done last year.  But I think most also appreciate the Mariner's gesture of allowing him to make his swan song in Japan.  Now with Ichiro retired, let the Ohtani era begin--once he gets off the DL.  (Or is it IL?  What's up with that anyway?  Is it now politically incorrect to say DL?  DL, DL, DL, DL!!!!)

[cardsfan]

OPS was all the rage... in 1997.

 

WAR is what you hear in arguments now, and since 2000, Ichiro is 9th in fWAR. The rest of the top 10 include Bonds, ARod, Pujols, Trout, Miggy Cabrera, Carlos Beltran, Utley, Beltre, and Chipper Jones. Essentially a whole list of Hall of Famers are near-HOFers. Incredibly, since 2000, he's by far the best baserunner and defensive right fielder that the game has seen. It's not particularly close in either respect.

Once the number of runs scored declined in early 2010s and he never drove in many runs he seemed to be hanging on. A 1st ballot for sure.

[jmlease1]

Ichiro in his first 10 years was amazing. His skill set (other than the fantastic defense) isn't valued the same way now, but in some ways I think that would make him an even more vital player. when everyone else is only hitting .250, that guy hitting .320 becomes even more valuable. Because avoiding outs is proven to be so important to offense, the old saying of "a walk is as good as a hit" started to be considered more like gospel, but the reality is, a hit is still actually better. I'd love to have Ichiro's 200+ hits to count on ever damn year.

[MMMordabito]

 

Now with Ichiro retired, let the Ohtani era begin--once he gets off the DL.  (Or is it IL?  What's up with that anyway?  Is it now politically incorrect to say DL?  DL, DL, DL, DL!!!!)

 

When I was a kid, my grandfather watched a lot of baseball and listened to it on the radio. He was a damn Yankees fan. Willie Randolph was one of his favorites in the 80s.  I honestly didn't follow baseball at the time, but I knew that he liked Randolph.  I was probably about 7 or 8 years old, so it must have been 82 or 83.  There was a Yankees game on.  I asked my grandfather when Willie Randolph was going to hit.  He told me he wasn't, because he was on the DL.  I asked what that was and he told me it was the disabled list.

 

Several days later during that visit with my grandparents, my grandfather had taken my brothers and me out around town in the mid-to-late afternoon. He stopped at McDonalds and got us milkshakes. Of course, this was within an hour or two of dinner time, so he knew he would probably get scolded for spoiling our appetites.  He told us not to tell my mom or grandmother about the milkshakes. He followed that up by saying "We're just going to keep that on the DL".  

 

It wasn't until about 20 years later that I figured out that DL meant 'down low' in that case.  I mean it kind of made sense the other way.

 

Long story short, the switch to IL is definitely messing with me. I thought it was silly to change it, but I guess it's the times we're in. Probably bigger fish to fry.

[AlwaysinModeration]

Will Ichiro be eligible for the Hall the same year as Mayer? He played in games this year; does he wait, or do he, Joe and Beltre all go on the ballot together?