Ichiro Suzuki: Japanese power player – Part 2
After all these highly successful seasons it was only time before Ichiro had a couple of non successful seasons and that is what happened in 2005. Some believe that the signing of Mike Hargrove as the new manager had something to do with his faltering performance.
Hargrove was one of Ichiro’s critics who predicted that he would be just another fourth outfielder on a MLB team. It was reported that both of them failed to get along throughout the season. That year he collected 206 hits which were the lowest since he began
his career.
Somehow he still managed to reach a .300 batting average, above a hundred runs, more than 30 steals and 200 plus hits for his fifth season straight. That made him the first player ever to collect 200 hits for each of the five seasons since he started. 2006
saw Ichiro getting back up from the damage that had been done in the previous season, although he got off to a bad start when he hit as low as .177 in the third week of the season. He quickly got back to his feet when the 1,345th career hit broke
Wade Boggs record for most hits during a six year period. This season also saw him getting his sixth Gold Glove Award, his sixth All-Star game selection and a Fielding Bible Award as the best MLB right-fielder.
The 2007 and 2008 seasons were played by the same Ichiro who had broken multiple records and not the one from the previously disappointing 2005 season. He topped Joey Cora’s record of hitting in 25 consecutive games, Tim Raines American League record of
stealing 41 bases consecutively without being caught and he was the first player to hit an inside-the-park home-run. When his contract with the Seattle Mariners ended, he was looking to be a free agent because even though he was breaking records all around,
his team wasn’t playing too well.
Later on he signed back with the Mariners and collected his 1,500th US hit. This was also his eighth 200 hit season and he topped Julio Cruz’s record of 292 stolen bases. He became the youngest player to amass 3000 top level hits which subsequently
made him the second Japanese player to get 3000 hits.
During 2009 and 2010 Ichiro was named the 30th out of the 50 greatest current players in baseball. He scored his 200 hit for the 9th consecutive year of his career and won his second Fielding Bible Award for best right fielder in MLB.
In 2010 he became eligible to be considered for the prestigious Hall of Fame. Later he achieved his 100th run and become the first MLB player to hit the 200 hit mark for 10 seasons straight.
When Ichiro came to America to play MLB for the first time, there were about a hundred newspaper and TV reporters who had especially come from Japan to witness his first game. All of them knew what Ichiro was capable of, but the Americans were about to find
out. And they surely did.
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