caulfield12 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43414814/mlb-baseball-hall-fame-2025-ichiro-suzuki-stories-mariners-yankees-marlins Cracking up thinking about Buehrle and Crede. Really regret not going to the museum his family still maintain in his hometown...we called from Tokyo and the hotel concierge talked to one of his parents (they maintained very peculiar hours and didn't open every day...like maybe 3-4 days per week). Saw him play in mid 2000s at SafeCo and had an IchiRoll haha. Thought that last story was about Carlos Torres (Sox pitcher)...totally forgot the pitcher Silva from Twins/Ms, ended his career in 2010 with the Cubs. Of course teammates not getting along would be a Sox thing, right? Enjoyed the Griffey aspect too, as he'd just had that 2008 storybook ending to the season with the White Sox. Edited January 21 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 (edited) "In a story from 2016, they noted he had visited the Hall six times already, and he told Ken Rosenthal last year that “Out of anywhere in the world, besides the places I’ve lived, Cooperstown is the place I’ve visited the most.” He could surely lead this tour on his own, but the magic of baseball - and something the HoF Museum imbues beautifully - is that there is always more to be learned, some new pocket of history to tunnel into." https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2025/1/21/24348427/ichiro-suzuki-cooperstown-elected-to-the-hall-of-fame https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6078291/2025/01/21/ichiro-suzuki-hall-of-fame-archives/ https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/sports/baseball/parents-of-ichiro-suzuki-showcase-his-baseball-start-and-career-in-museum.html Edited January 21 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 (edited) "Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner voted into Baseball Hall of Fame. Suzuki was one vote shy of becoming the second player to be a unanimous selection." ESPN.com First Japanese player ever elected. http://www.google.com.hk/url?q=https://www.sportico.com/leagues/baseball/2025/ichiro-baseball-hall-fame-election-1234824689/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwi7-YC0_IeLAxXfG9AFHRJTHewQFnoECA0QAg&usg=AOvVaw0NTTzFwrC7NZoPuQXiNilh ICHIRO’S HALL ELECTION PUNCTUATES PLAYER INFLUX FROM JAPAN Edited January 21 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 (edited) What idiot from the Boston Globe screwed up the unanimous selection??? Because Ichiro didn't know who Tom Brady was...? There has to be something questionable like a connection in writer's family history to Pearl Harbor/War in the Pacific. Looks like Jeter was one short and Griffey Jr. three as well. Mo Rivera only unanimous still. Ichiro only got 92.6% for Japanese HoF because he spent only 9 seasons playing there, but c'mon!!! Edited January 21 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrockway Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I don't think it's the greatest story. I'm dubious that Ichiro even belongs in the Hall of Fame. He sure isn't a First Ballot kind of guy. He enters the Hall alongside the likes of David Ortiz, media darlings with better personalities than baseball ability. I'm not even sure Ichiro has a personality, he just seems like a regular guy. Certainly "the idea of Ichiro" lives strong in the minds of baseball fans and apparently within the writers who have projected all sorts of attributes onto Ichiro. The writers watched him play when they were kids and wanted to emulate him because he didn't hit for power and neither could they. He couldn't speak English and neither could the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He had a lasting MLB career without hitting a bunch of bombs, so maybe Joe Takahashi in Plainfield could too. The people's champ in this way. I feel this way and I loved Ichiro. But was he ever actually that good? A right fielder with a career .760 OPS is in on the first ballot? He's on the cusp to me. Like, in terms of baseball ability, he's probably similar to, perhaps a little better than, Magglio Ordonez. I think Magz should be in, I think Ichiro should be too, but he got in way too easily. Ichiro had a big impact on the social component of the game, which is wonderful and should be considered, but I think he might be the most overrated baseball player of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 (edited) On 1/22/2025 at 6:57 AM, nrockway said: I don't think it's the greatest story. I'm dubious that Ichiro even belongs in the Hall of Fame. He sure isn't a First Ballot kind of guy. He enters the Hall alongside the likes of David Ortiz, media darlings with better personalities than baseball ability. I'm not even sure Ichiro has a personality, he just seems like a regular guy. Certainly "the idea of Ichiro" lives strong in the minds of baseball fans and apparently within the writers who have projected all sorts of attributes onto Ichiro. The writers watched him play when they were kids and wanted to emulate him because he didn't hit for power and neither could they. He couldn't speak English and neither could the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He had a lasting MLB career without hitting a bunch of bombs, so maybe Joe Takahashi in Plainfield could too. The people's champ in this way. I feel this way and I loved Ichiro. But was he ever actually that good? A right fielder with a career .760 OPS is in on the first ballot? He's on the cusp to me. Like, in terms of baseball ability, he's probably similar to, perhaps a little better than, Magglio Ordonez. I think Magz should be in, I think Ichiro should be too, but he got in way too easily. Ichiro had a big impact on the social component of the game, which is wonderful and should be considered, but I think he might be the most overrated baseball player of all time. Expand One of the best outfield throwing arms since Clemente/Walker/Evans. We only saw 2-3 years of his prime in the US. His job was to get on base and score...steal bases. That's exactly what he did. He was never asked to hit 3rd/4th and drive in runs in the US. Japanese culture dictates you do what will help your team win, period, individual stats be damned. You have to weigh his impact against guys like Carew Boggs Gwynn Henderson and Rose. Magglio was a great hitter there for 3-5 years but at best he was an average fielder and that skill eroded quickly enough in his 30s. Magglio obviously couldn't bunt sacrifice advance runners by always executing the correct play fundamentally. There are legendary stories about Ichiro's real power despite that frame and how he easily could have won a home run derby had the Mariners asked for him do so. He also carried the hopes and dreams for Japanese position players over generations, like Jackie Robinson or Clemente in their times, and weathered the jealousy by keeping his emotions from obviously showing..all were role or utility guys until Ichiro came to the US...he and Hideki Matsui's success paved the way for Ohtani's eventually emergence. Edited January 22 by caulfield12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 (edited) "Sabathia has a career WAR of 61.8, and think about some of the starters who are in the same neighborhood: Zack Greinke (72.8), Luis Tiant (65.6), Tommy John (62.1), David Cone (61.6), Andy Pettitte (60.7) and Mark Buehrle (60.0). There should be a whole lot of starting pitchers making speeches on the Cooperstown stage in the years ahead..." source: espn.com Next year, Carlos Beltran, former Sox CFer Andruw Jones, maybe Chase Utley. Edited January 22 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snopek Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 1/22/2025 at 6:57 AM, nrockway said: I don't think it's the greatest story. I'm dubious that Ichiro even belongs in the Hall of Fame. He sure isn't a First Ballot kind of guy. He enters the Hall alongside the likes of David Ortiz, media darlings with better personalities than baseball ability. I'm not even sure Ichiro has a personality, he just seems like a regular guy. Certainly "the idea of Ichiro" lives strong in the minds of baseball fans and apparently within the writers who have projected all sorts of attributes onto Ichiro. The writers watched him play when they were kids and wanted to emulate him because he didn't hit for power and neither could they. He couldn't speak English and neither could the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He had a lasting MLB career without hitting a bunch of bombs, so maybe Joe Takahashi in Plainfield could too. The people's champ in this way. I feel this way and I loved Ichiro. But was he ever actually that good? A right fielder with a career .760 OPS is in on the first ballot? He's on the cusp to me. Like, in terms of baseball ability, he's probably similar to, perhaps a little better than, Magglio Ordonez. I think Magz should be in, I think Ichiro should be too, but he got in way too easily. Ichiro had a big impact on the social component of the game, which is wonderful and should be considered, but I think he might be the most overrated baseball player of all time. Expand Now this is what I call committing to the bit. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Allen Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 The game where Ichiro got all the hits off Buehrle was in 2005, and took 99 minutes to play. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tnetennba Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 60 WAR, 3000 hits, 10 time All Star, MVP, ROY, 10 time Gold Glove, 3 time Silver Slugger, .311 career batting average over 2653 MLB games. This was all after he came to the States at age 27. Absurd that it wasn't unanimous. 3 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lip Man 1 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 On 1/22/2025 at 9:43 PM, Dick Allen said: The game where Ichiro got all the hits off Buehrle was in 2005, and took 99 minutes to play. Expand Have that game in my library. Mark struck out a career high 12 batters. Konerko hit two solo home runs and that was the difference in a 2-1 win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
46DidIt Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Considering Ichiro’s best season was his fourth and his second best OPS season came in his ninth, I would say we must have seen more than 2-3 years of his prime. Speaking of ninth season, he reached his 2000th career hit in that year. Pretty sure that had never been done before, 2000 hits in nine seasons. All while winning nine consecutive gold gloves. Come on now he’s obvious hall of famer I was living in Phoenix area back in 2001 and was completely hyped to see Ichiro. So I bought tickets to first M’s game at Scottsdale Stadium. Not to be disappointed, Ichiro unleashed the most incredible throw I have seen in my life. I swear to god he was standing directly in front of the OF wall in the RF corner foul territory and threw a line drive perfect strike to third base no bounce. The runner was already there but god damn that was easily most impressive throw I’ve ever seen. The second baseman in the outfield grass could have cut that throw off. That’s when I knew the hype was real 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/mlb/ichiro-suzuki-drink-writer-hall-of-fame-ballot/6119918/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 On 1/23/2025 at 11:04 PM, caulfield12 said: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/mlb/ichiro-suzuki-drink-writer-hall-of-fame-ballot/6119918/ Expand On 1/23/2025 at 9:32 PM, 46DidIt said: Considering Ichiro’s best season was his fourth and his second best OPS season came in his ninth, I would say we must have seen more than 2-3 years of his prime. Speaking of ninth season, he reached his 2000th career hit in that year. Pretty sure that had never been done before, 2000 hits in nine seasons. All while winning nine consecutive gold gloves. Come on now he’s obvious hall of famer I was living in Phoenix area back in 2001 and was completely hyped to see Ichiro. So I bought tickets to first M’s game at Scottsdale Stadium. Not to be disappointed, Ichiro unleashed the most incredible throw I have seen in my life. I swear to god he was standing directly in front of the OF wall in the RF corner foul territory and threw a line drive perfect strike to third base no bounce. The runner was already there but god damn that was easily most impressive throw I’ve ever seen. The second baseman in the outfield grass could have cut that throw off. That’s when I knew the hype was real Expand Saw Vladimir Guerrero make that same throw at the SAL All Star game back in the mid 90S. L.Walker Evans Clemente Puig Sosa some of the best throwing arms IMO...and Vladdy's dad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
46DidIt Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 1/23/2025 at 11:07 PM, caulfield12 said: Saw Vladimir Guerrero make that same throw at the SAL All Star game back in the mid 90S. L.Walker Evans Clemente Puig Sosa some of the best throwing arms IMO...and Vladdy's dad. Expand Yeah I had thought Vlad had best OF arm I had seen during my lifetime (Clemente before my time and Evans was an old man by my time) but I think I’d go with Ichiro. Bo had some doozies too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 On 1/24/2025 at 3:07 AM, 46DidIt said: Yeah I had thought Vlad had best OF arm I had seen during my lifetime (Clemente before my time and Evans was an old man by my time) but I think I’d go with Ichiro. Bo had some doozies too Expand Forgot about Bo...he started out as a CFer before the hip problems. Obviously one of the greatest all-around athletes in modern history, true five tool talent (well not exactly a refined pure hitter ofc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrockway Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 On 1/22/2025 at 1:30 PM, Snopek said: Now this is what I call committing to the bit. Expand Good observation. I do think ichiro is overrated though. The fact that him and Mariano are the two top vote getters is telling. I’m not sure what it tells, but it doesn’t have to do with baseball ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 On 1/25/2025 at 12:54 AM, nrockway said: Good observation. I do think ichiro is overrated though. The fact that him and Mariano are the two top vote getters is telling. I’m not sure what it tells, but it doesn’t have to do with baseball ability. Expand Well now Rivera is involved in an off the field scandal involving his NY church and abuse of an underage girl...covering it up to protect Assemblies of God ministries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 https://www.mlb.com/mets/news/rikuu-nishida-gets-autographed-bat-from-ichiro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milkman delivers Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 On 1/23/2025 at 1:19 AM, Tnetennba said: 60 WAR, 3000 hits, 10 time All Star, MVP, ROY, 10 time Gold Glove, 3 time Silver Slugger, .311 career batting average over 2653 MLB games. This was all after he came to the States at age 27. Absurd that it wasn't unanimous. Expand The dickhead writers inserting themselves into the story, as always. On 1/22/2025 at 6:57 AM, nrockway said: I don't think it's the greatest story. I'm dubious that Ichiro even belongs in the Hall of Fame. He sure isn't a First Ballot kind of guy. He enters the Hall alongside the likes of David Ortiz, media darlings with better personalities than baseball ability. I'm not even sure Ichiro has a personality, he just seems like a regular guy. Certainly "the idea of Ichiro" lives strong in the minds of baseball fans and apparently within the writers who have projected all sorts of attributes onto Ichiro. The writers watched him play when they were kids and wanted to emulate him because he didn't hit for power and neither could they. He couldn't speak English and neither could the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He had a lasting MLB career without hitting a bunch of bombs, so maybe Joe Takahashi in Plainfield could too. The people's champ in this way. I feel this way and I loved Ichiro. But was he ever actually that good? A right fielder with a career .760 OPS is in on the first ballot? He's on the cusp to me. Like, in terms of baseball ability, he's probably similar to, perhaps a little better than, Magglio Ordonez. I think Magz should be in, I think Ichiro should be too, but he got in way too easily. Ichiro had a big impact on the social component of the game, which is wonderful and should be considered, but I think he might be the most overrated baseball player of all time. Expand 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 I already know I'm in a small minority with this view. I'm a believer in it being a Hall of Fame not hall of great stats. It's a celebration of baseball and the players who played the game. I'm ok if guys who elevated the game with their character are recognized. Guys like Buerhle and Baines played the game in the way, and were the kind of humans, that I could point to as why baseball is a great game. Cheaters, liers, and criminals don't meet that bar. But again, no need to call me out, give other examples, etc. I'm not trying to influence anyone's opinion, just sharing mine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 On 1/23/2025 at 1:19 AM, Tnetennba said: 60 WAR, 3000 hits, 10 time All Star, MVP, ROY, 10 time Gold Glove, 3 time Silver Slugger, .311 career batting average over 2653 MLB games. This was all after he came to the States at age 27. Absurd that it wasn't unanimous. Expand Slightly absurd that writers will say no one year but yes the next. Yet in an absurd system, this does seem absurd. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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