Who Wants To Knock Out Ichiro?

is the problem was NOT ichiro, it was the overpaid pieces of shit like Vidro and Sexson all over the hill and overpaid and assuming the hits would just keep on coming and then bitter when the clubhouse just isn’t a jock-stroking ego-massage…

but man can that guy accumulate hits.

and he raises his bat with his left hand and uses his right hand to adjust his jersey. From behind the plate it looks like he’s making that thumb across the throat “you’re dead” motion.

I mean, he’s playing for the Angels’ prime division rival. And you’re in a tight race with them for the division title. Wait… hold on…

Actually, I don’t get this. Why even bother going after the marquis player on one of the worst teams in baseball? Seriously?

From the article, M’s manager Riggleman:
“It’s seventh-grade mentality. It’s pettiness, jealousy, pointing fingers, deflecting responsibility, lack of accountability, lack of character.”

The Angels have pwned him this year.

will be playing, but GMJ is hitting pretty well; hud says JRivera will play this weekend.

about Smashmouth being at Rally Monkay (misspell intended).

Or so says Comcast sports update. The M’s had to have a team meeting to relieve some of the tension and Ichiro was afraid he was going to get ganged up on by the rest of the team.

I used to HATE Ichiro. The media and his fans (mostly Japanese) made him out to be the sun god for the first few seasons, but that has worn off a bit.

As far as the name on his jersey thing goes, isn’t that because in the Japanese culture, first and last names are basically switched? I don’t care if he’s got his first name on his jersey if it’s the Japanes equivalent to a last name.

Lastly, the only thing that still bugs me about Ichiro is the girly-ness you speak of. But not so much because it’s girly, more so because he is fundamentally unsound as a ballplayer. If I had a boy, I’d make my son watch Ichiro play and say, “Do the opposite of everything he does.” He steps in the bucket when he hits, and “oleys” his catches in the outfield instead of using two hands. Those are two things I was taught not to do on like day one of little league.

Ichiro made his Pacific League debut in 1992 at the age of 18, but he spent most of his first two seasons in the farm system because of his manager’s refusal to accept Ichiro’s unorthodox swing.

 The swing, nicknamed ‘pendulum’ because of the pendulum-like motion of his leg, shifting the weight forward as he swung the bat, was considered to go against conventional hitting theory. Even though he hit a home run off Hideo Nomo, who later won the rookie of the year award in the majors leagues as a Dodger, Ichiro was sent back to the farm system on that very day.

In 1994, he benefited from the arrival of a new manager who played him every day in the second spot of the lineup. He was eventually moved to the leadoff spot for the Blue Wave, where his immediate productivity dissolved any misgivings about his uncoventional swing.

It was during the 1994 season that he began to use his given name, “Ichiro” instead of his family name, “Suzuki” on the back of his uniform. Suzuki is the second most common family name in Japan, and his manager introduced the idea as a publicity stunt to help create a new image for what had been a relatively weak team, as well as a way to distinguish their rising star.

Initially, Ichiro disliked the practice and was embarrassed by it; “Ichiro” was a household name by the end of the season and he was flooded with endorsement offers.

All of it here – Ichiro Suzuki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was a game thread earlier this season where almost everyone had the opinion they’d like to have Ichiro on the Angels and the Halos should trade for him.

I still think that. The guy can hit (can you imagine how many runs he’d score hitting in front or Teix, Vlad, and Hunter?), and although he may have declined in the field a bit, he’s still got a gun in the outfield. I also think the language barrior might have something to do with people’s attitude. Kinda hard to be one of the guys when you don’t speak their language. I agree with one point in the referenced article about professional hitters. They work hard at their skill and it might come across like they’re putting themselves before the team. I recently had that thought while watching the Bostock video and Rod Carew was comparing Bostock to himself. And how he was going to be great too.

Ichiro would be welcome on my favorite team anyday.

and it is hard to fully integrate yourself into a culture (even moreso if there is a language barrier.) Perhaps his cultural exclusion led his teammates to have trust issues etc with him.

Two words: Culture War. The Ichiro incident is just the tip of the iceberg. Esteemed factions of the press have correctly identified that the Culture War is in fact society’s greatest challenge. Oh sure, some will say, "The Mariners are 13th in runs, OBP, and SLG. And a poor Defensive Efficiency Ratio doomed a below-average pitching staff. That’s why they lost so many games." To which I say, "Isn’t that the same kind of gobbledygook language that started this whole Wall Street mess?"

Throw out the numbers, people. This is all about an ongoing, disastrous clubhouse culture war that took down a Mariners team destined to be the 2008 AL WEST CHAMPIONS and reduced them into a 100+ loss fiasco. The Ichiro incident has now been disclosed to the public, but it is the alleged altercations/confrontations that have NOT been reported which truly shed light as to why things went so wrong. (The following incidents could not be verified or substantiated. According to unnamed sources these may or may not have taken place, but hey, maybe they did happen.)

1) Following another tough loss, the following confrontation occurred in the clubhouse during the post-game meal:

Sexson: "WTF?? Who got f***** salsa on my f***** quiche?!!! Seriously!!!! WHO THE F**** GOT THEIR F**** SALSA ON MY QUICHE???!!!!!!! Vidro?Vidro?? Was it you, YOU FAT F***!!!!!!!! YOU RUINED MY QUICHE, YOU ******* SON OF A B****!!!!!

Sexson then threw a batting helmet at Vidro (which of course missed) and the fight was on. Both players have since been released. Coincidence? I think not.

2) Sometime in June, several hours before game-time, shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt sat back in front of the TV in the player’s lounge and flipped on the DVD player so he could watch "Wedding Crashers" for the 15th time. To his confused bewilderment, the title sequence to "Godzilla vs. Megalon" flashed across the TV screen.

Yuni: "Godzilla? Megalon?? Megalon WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! ICHIROOOOOOHHHH!!!!! DAMN YOU ICHIRO!!!!!!!! IMA GONNA KNOCK YOU OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I could go on. Like the other day when J.J. Putz, much to his anger, found some Barbra Streisand CDs and The Ethel Merman Disco Album in his locker which had been placed there accidentally. The true owner has yet to step forward. Anyway, it got Putz so upset and unfocused that he surrendered the game-winning HR last night. And how about the night of the cleveland steamers? Well, that’s just unprintable.

but the little bastard can hit. Would I teach others to hit using his style Nah……but he can hit and he is a burner (runs well). Teams have adjusted to him a little through the years but the guy plays everyday and racks up AB’d like nobody else. Infielders have learned you need to play in all around the infield because if you back up trying to protect against that hit in the hole he will beat it out and playing back allows him to beat balls out hit right in front of you.

I do know that there was problems with the way Ichiro was handled and there was problems with management on how Ichiro and Hargrove got along with one another that lead to Hargrove leaving. It was a battle Hargrove could not win. Not with the dynamics of the ownership in Mariner land. One only has to look at the fact Ichiro was not signing a contract with the club that was out on the table, and Ichiro even said he was wanting to explore the free agent market. Yet Hargrove leaves and less then 2 weeks later Ichiro signs the extension with the Mariners. That isn’t odd to anyone else?

Lot of players liked Mike Hargrove and the team was 11 games above .500 and had won their last 7 when Hargrove left the club. That can make some players upset! By no means should the clubhouse issues ever make it to the public. That is in house stuff and who ever said something to the print media is an idiot.

There is also a lot of talk about how Ichiro did not want to be the CF and wanted to play RF which caused problems for Hargrove and John McLaren. That was a one of the selfish things I had heard about him in the baseball circles not to mention the thing about stealing more bags was meet with distaste by Ichiro as well because he feared it would mess with his CS% where he is currently 4th all time in MLB. He was also asked to drive the ball more by Hargrove but again he would not do it in fear of his career BA suffering. I myself have seen him play a game where in the 8th inning with 2 outs and down by 1 run and a runner on 2nd he tried to bunt his way on base instead of driving in the tying run. That right there is a sign of a player caring more about himself then the team.

I can see were some teammates would become disenchanted by his selfishness. Remember these guys are not playing with one another on a Sunday Rec softball team and they are not all buddy buddy with one another and there will be issues from time to time but when a player/coach losses a job or the in Hargroves case the desire to be at the yard it will cause some to become upset.

As far as that bullshit word chemistry that is thrown around so easily by some I am going to tell you that winning builds chemistry! You will never fine anyone on a losing team, or a team that loses a 100 games that says “yeah but I sure love losing with these guys”

And this post is shit. Though the Aviator brings up some interesting points above.

A telltale sign of a bad organization (baseball or otherwise) is when they blame their failures on their best performer. Jarrod Washburn’s a helluva competitor, but he’s been a mediocre pitcher now for five of the last six seasons, and no amount of team-first juju (which he has in spades, being a proper Angel) will make him a more valuable player than the guy who (oooo!!) runs like a girl, pads his base-hit numbers, and shows up every damned day to work better than most anybody else.

Baseball’s a weird sport. It’s a team game, but filled a thousand individual acts. Guys go about their business in a thousand different ways, coming from hundreds of different cultural traditions, fueled by any number of selfish, numerical, or just plain weirdo motivations. You think Vladdy wasn’t mixing in some singles through the open infield holes on the right side to get up above .300 these past two weeks? Think Steve Garvey wasn’t laying down some late-game drag bunts in blowouts in order to get to 200?

The management trick is to not let the idiosyncracies of the stars become the dominant storyline & vibe in the workplace. Which is one of many reasons we had to rid ourselves of Mo Vaughn. I have no idea, of course, but I would doubt that Ichiro is anywhere near Fat Mo’s level of cancerdom, if for no other reason that he keeps himself in incredible shape, and makes the most out of his body. I consider it a pleasure that we get to see him play more than most, and I look forward to him being the first Japanese player in the Hall of Fame.

The quote above is from the original post. This Mr. Bentley, is it Harry Bentley? As in George and Weezy’s neighbour? And yes, he would be their “neighbour”, given the character’s British roots.