My ballot: Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Andy Pettitte, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins.
The last time I interviewed Ichiro Suzuki was spring training of 2019 when he was trying to earn a roster spot on the Seattle Mariners. He was 45 and could no longer hit at the level of his halcyon days.
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The Mariners brought Ichiro back for the sole purpose of letting him play in a pair of season-opening games at Tokyo Dome against the then Oakland A’s. But he had other ideas. He came into camp at Peoria, Ariz., in his usual superb shape, trying to make the team. But time is the usual master. And that was not in the cards.
The previous season the Mariners had picked him back up. But his return after five-plus seasons with the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins lasted just two months. He pulled a right calf muscle early in that spring’s tour and never rounded into shape. They released him on May 3, 2018, with nine singles in 44 at-bats, his .205 batting average far below what turned out to be a lifetime mark of .311.
As his 2019 spring began a few of us interviewed Ichiro in a small clubhouse scrum. He speaks fluent English, but still utilizes a personal Japanese translator, much like Shohei Ohtani does now.
I asked Ichiro if it was daunting to come back to face big league pitching after not swinging a bat in a live game in nearly a year.
“How would you feel if you had not written a story in a year?” he responded without even waiting for the translation.
“Let’s put it this way, Ichiro,” I said. “I’ve written a lot more stories in the last year than you’ve taken at-bats.”
We left it like that. As it turned out, he went 2-for-24 that spring and his storied career ended with the games in his home country where fans in the Dome gave him a number of rousing ovations.
Ichiro was the most problematic baseball player I’ve dealt with in a writing career that’s heading into its 50th season next year. He was always available, but always curt bordering on a total lack of respect. That day I vowed not to interview him again until he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Well, that day is here. He’s the leading new candidate on a ballot that includes a few viable players, but is not filled from top to bottom with Major League Baseball’s best and brightest. I’ve been voting since 1992 and long ago I came to the conclusion it’s the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of the Very Good.
Ichiro is an all-time great and a sure first-ballot selection. Despite our curious relationship, he has my vote. He’ll be the first Japanese player inducted into the Hall next July 27.
He began his career in Seattle in 2001, coming over from the Orix Blue Wave in Japan’s Pacific League and lasted there until mid-2012 when he was traded to the Yankees.
Along the way, he enjoyed 10 consecutive seasons of 200 hits or more, breaking the Major League record with 262 in 2004. During that period, he smacked 2,533 of his 3,089 Major League hits.
Adding his 1,278 hits in nine seasons playing for the Blue Wave, Ichiro amassed 4,367 hits and a Hall of Fame career on two continents.
People have asked me if he’ll be the second unanimous electee in history behind Mariano Rivera in the Class of 2019. I doubt it because his relationship with many of the voting writers was as a sketchy as mine. Someone or two will leave him off their ballots.
Once during a lengthy interview in the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium he sat there clipping his fingernails. You could hear the clicking on the digital audio. In retrospect it was funny, but disrespectful. He would have had a meltdown if I had done that to him.
In his waning days of his first stint with the Mariners, he reached the 2,500-hit plateau during a game in Arizona. He was asked if 3,000 was the next big milestone. He didn’t need any translation.
“Stupid question,” he barked, not pulling any punches.
I turned to his interpreter and mused: “Well, I guess he didn’t like that question.”
When he was on his way toward the 3,000-hit mark in 2016 with the Marlins, I asked him about his goals now that he was getting older.
“You know, I think you have your long-term goals and your short-term goals,” he said. “It just differs by player. You might have that as a long-term goal. Some guys might not. That’s where we differ, I think.”
Asked about his short-term goals, Ichiro responded: “No more interviews.”
In San Diego he tied and passed Pete Rose’s hits mark of 4,256, combining his in the Major Leagues and Nippon Professional Baseball. The late Rose, of course, did it all in the Majors leading him to quip:
“I’m not trying to take anything away from Ichiro, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, but the next thing you know, they’ll be counting his high school hits.”
During the postgame presser, the balls from the two now famous hits were sitting on the podium.
“Are those balls going to the Hall of Fame?” I asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “All I know is that I’m not giving them to you.”
John Boggs, his agent and business manager, that day presented Ichiro with a bat Tony Gwynn once used during a career in which he had 3,141 hits before his election in 2007 to the Hall of Fame with Cal Ripken Jr.
“Ichiro was duly impressed,” said Boggs, who also handled Gwynn in the same capacities.
Ichiro has always had a keen sense of baseball history. He’s visited the Hall of Fame under the cloak of secrecy many times where various Hall officials have taken him into the basement archives to view a display of interesting artifacts. A very small segment of those artifacts are actually on display in the museum itself.
Barring any unforeseen upsets on Jan. 21 he also won’t be a secret any longer. He’ll be a member of the Hall for good. I look forward to that next interview.
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