Don’t look now, but the MLB regular season kicks off next week with the A’s and Mariners doing a two-game stint in Japan. The media is already over in the Land of the Rising Sun filing reports. That includes Seattle Times reporter Geoff Baker’s piece on an Ichiro museum owned and operated by Ichiro’s own parents in Toyoyama.

Nobuyuki and Yoshie Suzuki have run the business for a decade and at least one of them is present and greeting visitors every day. Inside you’ll find the Mariners outfielder’s major awards as well as items and photos from as far back as his early childhood.

There are family photographs of 1-month-old Ichiro Suzuki being held by his grandmother, of Ichiro on a sixth-grade field trip, of Ichiro pony riding with his father at a local racetrack. And then, there is the desk Ichiro used to do his homework in elementary school.

The desk has been set up with a mannequin — depicting a younger Ichiro — sitting at a chair with a jacket with a Men’s Vache Club label tossed over it.

Sounds totally fascinating and like the ultimate destination for the Ichiro stalkers die-hards. But I can think of one thing the museum is missing: Rob Dibble’s butt tattoo.

H/T Hardball Talk
Photo credit: Christopher Hanewinckel, US Presswire

Imagine my surprise to see the headline Saturday that Ichiro Suzuki had been ejected from his game against the Blue Jays for arguing balls and strikes. Let’s think about this for a second. Ichiro doesn’t do interviews in English — he has a translator with him. So how did he argue with the umpire to the point that he was ejected? Did he use subtitles? Body language? Throw out a few choice cuss words? The AP says he used his actions to show his dismay, drawing a line with his bat to show that the pitch was outside. Well that definitely makes a lot more sense. Could you really picture a calm, humble athlete like Ichiro getting run for arguing a call? It just doesn’t seem like his style. Maybe he sounded like this:

If you haven’t seen Ichiro’s miracle blast against Mariano Rivera from Friday night, do yourself a favor and watch it now because it was awesome. The Mariners were down 2-1 in the 9th against the Yankees and Rivera had struck out the first two batters he faced. Mike Sweeney then hit a pinch-hit double, bringing up Ichiro to the plate. Let’s go beyond the boxscore to detail how improbable Ichiro’s walk-off home run was:

> Ichiro hit the first pitch out, a patented Rivera cutter
> It was the second straight game Ichiro ended with a walk-off hit (he had just one in his career prior to Thursday)
> Rivera had converted 36 straight saves
> Rivera hadn’t blown a save against the Mariners since 1997 (27 straight)
> The Yankees had been 155-1 when leading after 8 innings the past two seasons
> It gave Felix Hernandez his 16th win of the season, keeping him in the Cy Young race

The ending to the game really won’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things considering the Yankees are still going to take the AL East and the Mariners still won’t make the playoffs, but the big blow speaks to the quality of player Ichiro is. Not just anyone can beat Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning — on a cutter no less; it just doesn’t happen very often. Yet a guy who’s not even a power hitter still took Rivera deep in the 9th with two outs. Ichiro showed once again how truly elite he is — he’s a one-of-a-kind ballplayer and we’re lucky to have witnessed his brilliance.

He may not come off that way, but Ichiro Suzuki actually is a pretty humorous dude. He jokes around with Griffey in the clubhouse and raps each year to pump up the AL All-Star team. He also speaks pretty good English and got off this classic quote regarding his slap-hitting style:

“Chicks who dig home runs aren’t the ones who appeal to me,” he said. “I think there’s sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I’d rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out.”

Dude, this guy is hilarious! Talk about bringing the beauty of small ball mainstream. A lot has been made about Ichiro lately because his style has put him at nearly 2,000 career hits in just nine seasons in the bigs. Combined with his stats from Japan and his consistent dominance of the world’s best pitching, Ichiro no doubt exemplifies a Hall of Famer. I just can’t wait for him to start pitching so he can go down in history in the same category as Babe Ruth. Remind me again why his teammates wanted to beat him up?

(via Big League Stew)