Ichiro Suzuki News

"With baseball players from the famous to the fringe coming under a performance-enhancing cloud, Ichiro Suzuki is the antidrug."

"By the end of the 2009 season — two years into the five-year extension he signed three days after being named most valuable player of the All-Star Game — Ichiro will have played precisely half his 18-year professional career in the North American major leagues."

"Countless attempts have been made over the years to try to pinpoint Ichiro's prowess, but Dr. Kenichiro Mogi may have trumped all explanations. "Ichiro," he says with confidence, "has a very fine prefrontal cortex.""

"The nightmare continues. OK, not a nightmare. More like a curiosity, eliciting increasing levels of incredulity. Ichiro hitless? It's like Paris Hilton going dateless, Jon Stewart going quipless, Eliot Spitzer going escortless."

"Let's just say it. Ichiro is 0 for 14 in spring training. And his teammates are starting to feel sorry for him. But if the red flags are up and the warning signs and alerts are sounding across the Pacific in Japan, there's no sense of concern about Ichiro's slump in the Mariners' camp. At least on the surface. And not one from Ichiro himself, either. "

"If he stays healthy and productive, Ichiro Suzuki will become the youngest player to reach 3,000 career hits. He had 1,278 hits in Japan before coming to the Mariners in 2001, and he has 1,592 hits since journeying across the Pacific."

"The leaving part was settled last summer with a long-term contract extension. And now, in Ichiro's words at least, the commitment-to-winning issue has been answered by the team's recent trade for starting pitcher Erik Bedard. "We made a big trade, something that is the biggest of my career with the Seattle Mariners," Ichiro said, through interpreter Ken Baron. "What I mean by that is, it was a trade in which we didn't try to avoid risk. "

"When he agreed at the 2007 All-Star break to a five-year contract extension, Ichiro Suzuki did it with an implicit understanding the front office would make the Mariners a better team. He was more than willing to stay, but he didn't want to play for a losing franchise. To that point, the Mariners had had three consecutive losing seasons but were halfway through a season that ended with them 14 games over .500."

"When Ichiro Suzuki arrived at the Mariners’ spring training complex Tuesday afternoon, he went straight in for his mandatory physical and chose to do some hitting in the batting cages, forgoing the sizable media contingent, who were hoping for a few comments. Instead, he chose to address all media – Japanese, then the English-speaking journalists – Wednesday afternoon. It’s becoming a bit of a tradition."

"Suzuki, the multitalented center fielder for the Seattle Mariners, rarely wastes a minute. He rumbles through the clubhouse like a man trying to catch a plane. He is always moving, always on a mission."

"Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona makes no secret about what he considers the best way to beat the Seattle Mariners. Keep Ichiro Suzuki under wraps."

"Ichiro Suzuki is fun, fast and fearless, nifty attributes for any baseball player. Suzuki displayed all of those traits when he dashed 360 feet on Tuesday to the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history."

"John Lackey could not bring himself to be disappointed. He should have been, perhaps. Lackey pitches for the Angels, after all, and the American League West won't get any easier with leadoff man extraordinaire Ichiro Suzuki on the verge of signing a five-year contract extension worth nearly $100 million with the Seattle Mariners."

"Instead of Bonds dominating the game, Ichiro Suzuki came closest to doing so. Suzuki had the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, and added two singles and drove in two runs to power the American League over the National League, 5-4."

"On the second, Washington waved Ichiro Suzuki around third on a ball that hit off the commemorative All-Star banner draped over the right field wall and rolled away from Griffey. Ichiro scored easily for the first inside-the-park in All-Star Game history."