Ichiro gave a rare, extended interview to Jon Saraceno of USA Today in which he revealed a lot about himself. In the article, Ichiro says the possibility of leaving the Mariners would be a touchy subject. The entire article is well worth a read if you want to get inside the head of the Mariners outfielder. But there was one part that stood out to me, potentially more than anything else. Ichiro says he’s considering pitching.
“Once I turn 40,” he says, “I can become a pitcher. I’m kind of serious about it. But I’ll have to learn to throw a knuckleball. Right now, I could be a ‘normal’ pitcher,” who can top out at 95 mph with a fastball.
As my buddy GP John said, “How f***ing gangster would that be? Ichiro would immediately be my favorite player.” You know what, that would be a stretch for most players. But Ichiro is unlike most players. He’s special. He takes care of himself better than most players. He stays in incredible shape, and has a tremendous arm. I’ve heard that if Ichiro wanted to change his approach at the plate, he could hit 25 home runs a season — based on the way he clubs in batting practice. Combining all this information makes me think Ichiro could be a valuable pitcher if he chose to. I already was a big Ichiro fan — now, I’m even more of one. How sweet would it be to see Ichiro pitch?
(Thanks to Ballhype and Gaslamp Ball for directing my attention to the article)
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
did you see the other quotes Ichiro said? man, this guy is shrooming or something. he’s fucking nuts.
Lol. There is only one man who can say that and anyone would take it seriously. His first name is Ichiro.
First name? His only name.
If Ichiro could learn how to pitch well at the major league level after putting in at least ten seasons as a position player in order to qualify for the HOF, it would be amazing and refreshing.
He would then join Babe Ruth as the only two MLB players in history to master both pitching and position play.
Babe Ruth is the greatest player ever because he did master both, to the extent that he could have made the HOF based on his pitching exploits alone. His record of consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the World Series lasted longer than his record of 60 home runs in one season, and he had a 5-2 lifetime record in head to head contests with Walter Johnson, arguably the greatest pitcher ever. He also never had a losing season.
I think Ichiro would make an amazing pitcher. He was also a pitcher all threw high school in japan and everyone thought he was going to be one of the best pitchers of all time.