Our Ichiro's Back--Is There Gonna Be Trouble?
Should you choose to believe the baseball reportage of the Seattle Times' Geoff Baker--and you don't really have a choice, since he's the only Seattle reporter covering the team full-time--you'll accept that "team chemistry" is a critical facet of baseball success.
Baker's been banging that drum since last season's 101-loss debacle, which he contended was partially due to dysfunctional relationships in the Mariner clubhouse.
The most explosive dysfunction was mistrust of the team's star, Ichiro, who some M's considered a selfish player. Anger towards the hit king was so pronounced, Baker reported, that one player threatened a Code-Red-style beatdown.
During spring training, Baker detailed how M's management was trying to change the culture of the team. And now that the team is off to a hot start, both Baker and the Times' colleague Larry Stone have focused on improved "chemistry" as part of the reason.
"It's just a different attitude between everyone in here," reliever Roy Corcoran told Stone.
Yeah, but--the 6-2 start and "different attitude" have come while Ichiro, hot-button of last year's chemistry problems, was recovering from a bleeding ulcer in Arizona.
Will Ichiro's return tonight upset the delicate chemical mix that's supposedly keyed the team's hot start? Baker doesn't think so, but fans and M's observers are going rogue.
"The team is better off without a selfish Ichiro," writes one Times commenter.
KJR talker and ex-Mariner Jeff Nelson, a former teammate of Ichiro's, implied on yesterday's M's post-game show that Ichiro cares more about getting hits than helping his team win.
Do Mariner players believe Ichiro will be like a gummy bear to the team's potassium chlorate? No one's going to say so publicly. But if players thought Ichiro was hurting the team last year, it's hard to see how winning six of eight games without him is going to change their minds.
Say Ichiro's return coincides with a losing streak. It's not difficult to imagine fans beginning some sort of Glenn-Beck-esque anti-Ichiro vendetta. Or maybe the players finally delivering that Code Red.
It's all nonsense, of course. Ichiro is one in a long line of superstar baseball players accused of a me-first attitude.
Ted Williams, for instance. Williams hit 521 career home runs in between taking several seasons off to serve as a fighter pilot in two different U.S. wars--yet Boston fans and media charged that Williams was selfish. The prevailing view was that Williams took too many pitches because he wanted to keep his average up, when he should've been swinging at bad balls that might've resulted in run-scoring hits.
Ironically, Ichiro's getting accused of selfishness for the opposite reason: People say he doesn't take enough pitches because he wants to get 200 hits every season; his failure to force opposing pitchers to throw more pitches means that they can stay on the mound longer.
The lesson is simple: There's no pleasing some people. Even Ken Griffey, Jr., now revered as a god in Seattle, was once derided here for his lack of hustle.
Geniuses rarely make friends, whatever their field of endeavor. Less-talented colleagues view them with jealousy and mistrust. Ichiro's hater teammates are the Salieris to his Mozart, Edisons to his Tesla.
As player/genius 50 Cent once said: "Haters hate that I'm winnin' / Man I've been hot from the beginnin.'"
Let the haters hate. The rest of us can enjoy Ichiro for what he is--a likely Hall-of-Famer, the finest batsman since Williams' day, and, other than Griffey, the best player in Mariner history.
Ichiro's 2009 debut is tonight at Safeco Field as the Mariners face the Angels in game two of a three game series. Don't look for his traditional #51; he'll be wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, as will all major leaguers in honor of the 62nd anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier.
Game time is 7:10 p.m., you can watch on FSN. Tickets: Ticketmaster, Stubhub, Craigslist.
