Ichiro Suzuki

Ichirō Suzuki (Japanese铃木 一 朗, Suzuki Ichirō, usually only known by Ichirō; born October 22, 1973 in Toyoyama, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese baseball player in Major League Baseball. He stands at the New York Yankees under contract and held the position of outfielders. Previously, he played for twelve years, the Seattle Mariners after he was nine years with the Orix BlueWave in the Japanese Pacific League under contract. Ichirō was the first Japanese man who established himself as a regular player on a field position in the MLB.

From his first season at Ichirō was one of the strongest players in the MLB. So far, he won in each of his ten years at Seattle a Gold Glove and played for the All -Star team. In addition, he was in 2001, 2007 and 2009 Silver Slugger Award as. During the 2004 season Ichirō set a new record for hits (262 ) in a season.

Youth

Ichirō began playing baseball at the age of seven years. He asked his father, Nobuyuki Suzuki to teach him to become a better player. The two trained daily, Ichirō threw 50 pitches and acted as a batsman with his father's 200 pitches. In addition Ichirō got 50 infield and outfield balls, which he defended. In conclusion, he still hit 250 to 300 balls from a bowling machine.

As a youth player Ichirō had the word shūchū (concentration) written on his glove. At the age of 12 he sat the final goal of becoming professional baseball, and told of now on the vision of his father. Nobuyuki once said, " Baseball was fun for both of us ," but Ichirō later said, " It might have been fun for him, but for me it was more like Star of the Giants ". Star of the Giants is a popular Japanese manga and an anime series that tells of the difficult path of a boy to professional baseball. The boy's father calls him a rigorous training. Ichirō said in reference to the training with his father once, "It bordered on humiliation and I have suffered. "

As Ichirō joined the baseball team in high school, his father told the coach: " No matter how good Ichirō is, you may never praise him. We have to make him spiritually strong. "When Ichirō went to secondary school, he was selected by a school with a prestigious baseball past. Ichirō was then used because of its strong throwing arm is not as outfielder, but as a pitcher.

In his high school career it brought Ichirō to a batting average of .505 and 19 home runs. Components of very tough training methods covered include the spinning of tires or hitting balls with a heavy shovel. These methods strengthened his wrists and hips and increased the strength and endurance of the rather slender built Ichirō.

In the Draft of the Japanese professional league Ichirō, however, was "pulled" until the fourth and final round, as the team thought he was too small ( 180 cm) and lightweight ( 54 kg ) in order to play professional baseball.

Career in Japan

Ichirō debuted in 1992 at the age of 18 years in the Pacific League, but played in the first two years mainly in a farm team, as the manager of the unorthodox swing style of Ichirō not accepted. Ichiro's swing, nicknamed " Pendulum " ( dt: Pendulum ) got, is not in principle compatible with the conventional swing. Ichirō makes a " pendulum-like " movement of his foot and puts his weight during the swing forward. Normally during the swing, the weight lying on the back leg to effectively hit the ball can.

In the 1994 season, a manager change Ichiro's favored career. He was brought into the extended squad of Blue Wave. In addition, he was allowed to swing as he wanted it. He thanked the Manager with a Japanese season record of 210 hits in 130 games. His batting average of 0.385 also earned him the first of seven consecutive titles in these statistics. In addition, he scored 13 runs and he stole 29 bases, which earned him the first of three nominations for MVP in the Pacific League.

In the 1994 season, the players began to " Ichiro " instead of " Suzuki " to use on his jersey as the name. The reason for this was that Suzuki is the second most common surname in Japan. Ichirō result, wanted to stand out from the crowd. This was welcomed by the management, which saw him as emerging players with star potential and wanted to convey a certain image and individuality. Although Ichirō this tactic of the weak teams not necessarily liked, he stayed with the label and was soon swamped with requests for autographs.

In the 1995 season Ichirō led the Blue Wave to their first Pacific League title for twelve years. First places still came in the statistics RBI (80 ), home runs (25 ) and stolen bases (49 ) for his second title at the batting average. At this time the Japanese press began to refer to him as " The Human beat machine". In 1996 Ichirō received then the third MVP award in a row. The team defeated the champion of the Central League, the Yomiuri Giants, in the Nihon Series.

In 2000 Ichirō was a year away from being suitable as a free agent. But the Blue Wave were no longer among the best teams in Japan and the star itself could no longer afford. To avoid having to let him go without a release not a year later, they allowed him to enter into discussions with teams of Major League Baseball. Ichirō used the so-called posting system, an agreement between the MLB and the Japanese professional league, which was introduced in order to preserve the Japanese team from having to leave their young talents draw without any financial compensation to America. The Seattle Mariners won the " auction" with a bid of around 13 million U.S. dollars. Ichirō then signed a three year contract in Seattle with a volume of 14 million U.S. dollars, becoming the first Japanese player in the field MLB history.

In his nine years in Japan Ichirō brought it to an overall batting average of .353 and won seven Gold Gloves.

Career in Major League Baseball

2001-2003

On 9 November 2000 Ichirō received at the Seattle Mariners a contract with a volume of about 14 million U.S. dollars. Media interest in Ichirō was overwhelming, as he was the first Japanese man who made ​​the leap as a field player in the MLB. To date, and only pitcher from Japan in the professional league were only active. Similar reviews as those in the Draft in Japan came on in America. It was doubted that Ichiro's stature would be enough to prevail. In addition, each season in the MLB are 162 games played, significantly more than in Japan. Ichirō delivered, especially on the defensive, an impressive debut in the game against the Oakland Athletics from.

Ichirō played an outstanding rookie season in 2001. He brought it to 242 hits, breaking a record of 1930. Moreover, he led the league with a batting average of .350 with 56 stolen bases. Furthermore, two great series of games he scored with hits: one with 15 and one with 23 games. He came on the cover of Sports Illustrated and conjured a media storm in both the U.S. and Japan up.

The Mariners posted new records in ticket sales and Japanese baseball fans booked rows worth of travel for $ 2,000 to attend the games in Seattle. More than 150 Japanese reporters and photographers were to be accredited and in stage Ichirolls the sushi was sold.

With the help of Major League Baseball, the allowable permit the All-Star voting in Japan, became the first rookie Ichirō more votes for election as all other MLB professionals. At the end of the season Ichirō was elected Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year in the American League. He was only the second player after Fred Lynn, who won both awards in his first MLB season. Some sportswriters criticized, however, that Ichirō the " rookie status " had, since he brought a lot of experience from the Japanese professional league. This is an unfair advantage over the players that team came from the minor league.

In the years 2002 and 2003 Ichirō confirmed the very good performance. He managed each over 200 hits, was elected to the All- Star team and won a Gold Glove Award two years.

2004: Ichiro's record hunt

During the 2004 season could Ichirō various records in Major League Baseball set:

  • August 26: With a double against the Kansas City Royals Ichirō became the first player who managed 200 hits in each of his first four years.
  • AUGUST 28: Ichirō was the first player of MLB history, who managed three months in a row 50 hits.
  • August 31: Ichirō ended August with 56 hits, the most since 1938 At that time managed to Jeff Heath 58.
  • September 17: Ichirō be managed 199sten single season. He beat the record set by Lloyd Waner, who succeeded in 1927 198.
  • September 22: Ichirō broke the 79 year-old record by Harry Heilmann in the category of hits on the Road (hits at away games ), after he made ​​his 135sten hit.
  • October 1: Ichirō abolished the 258 and 259 hits, breaking the record set by George Sisler, who since 1920 had stock. He also broke the record for hits in a span of four years with a total of 919 hits.
  • October 3: Ichirō finished the season with 262 hits. He was also the first in the batting average statistic with .372. His 225 singles of the season broke the record set by Willie Keeler eternal from the year 1898. Ichirō also narrowly missed Willie Wilson's record for most at bats. Ichirō walked 704 times to beat, Wilson's record stands at 706

2005-2006

In the 2005 season, managed to reach Ichirō already the fifth time in a row, more than 200 hits in a season. He was the first player to have managed in his first five years as a pro. In addition, it managed before him only five other players over 200 hits in five consecutive seasons to achieve, namely Willie Keeler, Wade Boggs, Chuck Klein, Al Simmons, and Charlie Gehringer. He also struck 15 homers this season, what a new personal record showed.

The start of the 2006 season was rather weak for Ichiro conditions. So he could produce only a batting average of .200 in April, for example. In the course of the season he improved steadily and then finished the season with a batting average of .322, which ranked sixth of the American League and won him in eleventh place these statistics in the MLB. In addition, he managed 224 hits ( number one in the MLB), 110 runs and 45 stolen bases.

The fans voted Ichirō in the All- Star team of the American League. This was the sixth participation in the sixth year as a pro in America. The six participations Ichirō was five times in the starting lineup. Only in 2005 he started as a substitute. Ichirō also won for the sixth time Gold Glove Award.

2010

In the 2010 season succeeded Ichirō as the first player in the MLB to expand its series of seasons with at least 200 hits on 10 seasons now. Pete Rose not arrive earlier also 10 seasons with this performance, but by how Ichirō in ten consecutive seasons. For his defensive performance in the outfield, he was awarded for the tenth time in a row with a Gold Glove. This puts it in the list of won Gold Gloves in the outfield on the shared third place behind Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, who were each twelve times successfully.

Stations

Trivia

  • In January 2006 Ichirō played in the television series Furuhata Ninzaburō itself His role was that of the murderer
April 2 Hit (Baseball) Run (Baseball) 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game Draft (sports) Farmteam
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