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Ichiro in the Washington Post: October 12, 1994:
The Washington Post extended their baseball coverage a little farther afield than usual this morning, writing a story about the just concluded Japanese League season. While it was interesting reading anything from Japan at all, details were maddeningly incomplete.

The story of the year there was one Ichiro Suzuki, who is called, simply, Ichiro.

The 20-year-old rookie for the Orix Blue Wave, who play in Kobe, Ichiro became the first player in the Japanese leagues to get 200 hits in a season. He hit .385, a record for a Japanese player (an American, Randy Bass, holds the league record at .389).

He was described as extremely fast, with an exceptionally fast swing: and an extremely unorthodox one. Sadaharu Oh lifted his front leg straight up as the pitcher went into motion; Ichiro apparently brings it up and back behind his plant leg, rather like a pitcher will wind up, and then absolutely explode forward into the ball. Left handed, a ''tall beanpole'' (they didn't say how tall is tall, but he struggles to get his weight up to 160). He developed his swing by swinging a coal shovel (which he still does); his swing was reported by the NHK TV network as the fastest in Japan, at 0.18 seconds (how the swing was defined wasn't mentioned). Last year, the Orix manager tried to alter his swing towards something more orthodox, which Ichiro refused to do, and so he was sent to the minors. This year, that manager was gone; the new manager just lets him play.

How he became 'just' Ichiro
In 1997, Akira Ogi became the manager of Orix Blue Waves and changed the name on the back of Ichiro's uniform to "Ichiro," from "Suzuki", which was unique. At first he was embarrassed by this, however soon the fans grew fond of it and now it is his trademark.

Ichiro led the Pacific League in batting average for a Japanese-record seven consecutive seasons and was a three-time league MVP. He was named to the Pacific League's "Best Nine" for seven consecutive years. He won seven consecutive Gold Gloves for his solid defense and strong arm in right field. Ichiro hit a career-best .387 in 2000 and led the league in on-base percentage for the fifth time with a .460 mark. He was also named to the Pacific League's "Best Nine" end-of-season All-Star team for the seventh consecutive year and won his seventh straight Gold Glove for fielding excellence.

Below are his regular season stats:

Year/Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG BB SO SB PO A E
1992 Orix Blue Wave 40 95 9 24 5 0 0 5 .253 3 11 3 50 0 0
1993 Orix Blue Wave 43 64 4 12 2 0 1 3 .188 2 7 0 34 1 0
1994 Orix Blue Wave 130 546 111 210 41 5 13 54 .385 51 53 29 261 10 5
1995 Orix Blue Wave 130 524 104 179 23 4 25 80 .342 68 52 49 262 14 2
1996 Orix Blue Wave 130 542 104 193 24 4 16 84 .356 56 57 35 277 8 2
1997 Orix Blue Wave 135 536 94 185 31 4 17 91 .345 62 36 39 269 7 2
1998 Orix Blue Wave 135 506 79 181 36 3 13 71 .358 43 35 11 245 12 3
1998 Orix Blue Wave 135 506 79 181 36 3 13 71 .358 43 35 11 245 12 3
1999 Orix Blue Wave 103 411 80 141 27 2 21 68 .343 45 46 12 196 10 0
2000 Orix Blue Wave 105 395 73 153 22 1 12 73 .387 54 36 21 218 5 4
9 year total 951 3619 658 1278 211 23 118 529 .353 384 333 199 1812 67 18

To read about Ichiro's American debut, go to Page 3.

This site is dedicated to the Japanese superstar Ichiro Suzuki.
It is a work in progress. If you would like to provide information for this site,
please email me at Ice Ice Ichiro.