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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
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:
To read about Ichiro's American debut, go to Page 3.
This site is dedicated to the Japanese superstar Ichiro Suzuki.
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