By Robert Whiting (2009)
Ichiro just can’t win. On September 13, Ichiro broke a record that has stood for over 100 years when he got his 200th hit for the 9th season in a row. It was a remarkable achievement combining batting artistry, durability and dedication. One has to play a lot of games every year, get over 500 at-bats and have really good batting to get 200 hits. Indeed, one might argue that Ichiro’s feat in the first 9 years of his MLB career is the single greatest sustained display of hitting on the record books. But, alas, he was far from the leading topic of conversation in the US sports media.
The weekend Ichiro broke his record was filled with other important, big-time sports activities. There was the college football matchup between two national powers, USC and Ohio State. There was the US Open. And there was the NBA Hall of Fame induction ceremony featuring Michael Jordan. Ichiro’s feat took a back seat in the sports media because of this.
Moreover, Ichiro’s feat came on the heels of Derek Jeter breaking the all-time hits record for the New York Yankees, surpassing the great Lou Gehrig, and was lost in the overwhelming media coverage of that September 9 event. Jeter was lionized in every sports media venue. There was a full-page photo of Derek Jeter in USA Today. Moreover, in a nationally televised interview on Sunday, September 20, even US president Barack Obama mentioned Derek Jeter’s record-breaking feat but said nothing about Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro’s feat sailed under the radar, barely noticed in the national media.
Some people blame racism for this, but Ichiro plays in Seattle, which is not a giant media center. Moreover, there is the fact that Ichiro’s record is so far out of the ordinary that sports fans and commentators don’t know what to make of it. They have a difficult time connecting with Ichiro personally because he is from such a distant place, and also because the record he broke is also from such a distant time—a time of which Americans have no living memory and no moving images to view. Then too, Ichiro’s game is so unlike the MLB game of today with its emphasis on raw power, and so similar to the game of the 1890s with its infield “Baltimore Chop” hits, that the connection is just too difficult to make.
ESPN’s Rob Neyer put it this way: “People are not interested in the Ichiro record because they can’t identify who held the record previously. How many American fans would be able to name the player who has the most consecutive 40 home run seasons, or the pitcher with the most 20-win seasons? Not very many. We only get excited about records that we can tie to a known person, and better yet, a known personality.”
Being ignored is not a new experience for Ichiro. He is certainly familiar with this kind of treatment. He was a national sensation in Japan at the beginning of his career, but even though he produced great statistics year in and year out, people just got bored. The media in Japan was all about Hideki Matsui and the Yomiuri Giants (and to a lesser extent Daisuke Matsuzaka). The year Ichiro challenged .400, he was just a footnote in the sports news, playing to empty stands and never once appearing on national TV. It was only when Ichiro went to MLB that he suddenly became a national hero in Japan. “That’s our boy,” people started saying, and one began to hear blabbering nonsense about the ‘life & hope’ Ichiro represented—this from the very same people who had ignored him for so long. This may explain Ichiro’s somewhat surly attitude toward the Japanese press. One wonders what it will take to get Americans to treat him as a national hero.
About the only guys who really seem to appreciate Ichiro (excepting the Japanese sports media and fans) are the opposing managers and players who tear their hair out trying to figure out how to keep Ichiro off base. For a lead-off hitter to lead the team in intentional walks, as Ichiro does, is a truly remarkable thing. That’s usually something that happens to a cleanup hitter.
For the national media to treat it so lightly is the real shame.
But let’s wait and see what the reaction is when he gets his 3000th hit five years from now.
Tokyo Junkie 