Ichiro and King Felix are unquestionably the best two players on the Seattle Mariners. That fact is so obvious that these two sentences probably shouldn’t even exist. But while Felix is one of the best five pitchers in the game right now, Ichiro may be one of the five best hitters of all time.
Imagine that. In the history of human existence, there are maybe a handful of people who are as good as you at something. Sure, being one of the best physicists of all time carries a bit more significance than being as good as anyone ever at hitting a ball with a stick, but the latter is still quite amazing.
The thing is though, Ichiro doesn’t see it that way, and believes he’s just one of the guys. The folks at sportspressnw.com have an interesting article on Ichiro, who describes himself as ‘nothing special’. A couple interesting quotes:
“I never thought that I am special,’’ Ichiro told sportspressnw.com in a wide-ranging interview. “But back playing in Japan, a lot of people said. ‘that guy’s different,’ ‘that guy’s special,’ ‘that guy’s got the talent.’ I hear that now here as well. I have never felt that before.
“I would hear people would say ‘don’t imitate him because he’s special,’ ‘you won’t be able to be like him because he’s special, because he’s unique, because he’s different from others.’ But I’ve never felt that way.’’ [...]
“Every time we come to spring training, I always have the feeling I have to compete, even against the minor leaguers,’’ Ichiro said. “You may not believe that, but that’s how I’ve felt from Day One. From my first year until now, my 20th professional season, I still feel that way. That will never change.
“Obviously as we get closer to the season, you see guys getting cut, you can visualize the 25-man roster, you kind of see the big picture from there on. But right now, at this time of the spring, I’ve always had the same feeling I had since the first year.’’
He doesn’t show up at 7 a.m. as some of the hungriest youngsters do. It’s not unusual for him to still be getting into his uniform as the Mariners’ daily morning clubhouse meetings convene.
At first, the fact that Ichiro sees himself as just another ballplayer, and as someone needs to compete for a roster spot, is a good thing. And it’s not necessarily bad, but do you want the best and most established player on the team to see his role in a spring camp filled with youngsters to be that of a first-year player? In looking around at great players in baseball and other sports—the Pujols, Halladays and Kobe Bryants—do you think they honestly believe they’re “nothing special”? Does Ichiro?
Coming back to that in a moment, sportspressnw.com also had an interesting post on the blossoming relationship (d’aww) between Felix Hernandez and Michael Pineda. As many noted, Felix held off on talking to the media until after he saw Pineda pitch.
“Michael has good stuff,’’ a jocular Hernandez said in the clubhouse. “I can’t wait to go out and watch him.’’
When he did, he saw enough to offer encouragement.
“Felix came to me after my first inning,’’ Pineda said. “He told me I needed to keep working hard.’’ [...]
Felix’s support for Pineda seems to extend beyond the diamond though. In Larry Stone’s excellent profile on the youngster making all kinds of noise in camp, he speaks with new bullpen coach Jaime Navarro on Pineda’s language skills, amongst many other things.
“When he first got here, he (Pineda) understood nothing,” said the bilingual Navarro, who grew up in Puerto Rico. “And I pushed him. I said, ‘You have a gift. The only way you can accomplish that gift is to learn the language. You have to work at that.’ ”
Navarro said he and Pineda went to Barnes and Noble together to buy language books, and later a Rosetta Stone computer program. Pineda is still working diligently to learn English, supported by the organization.
“Now he’s not afraid,” Navarro said. “He talks when he needs to talk and he’s not afraid to do it. Many of the guys are afraid of what they say; they don’t want to sound stupid. He doesn’t care. He says, ‘The only way I can make myself better is just talking.’
“Seeing Felix gives him a little more confidence — ‘If he can do it, why can’t I? I want to become that. I want to be that.’ That’s a big help. That relationship — Felix is doing a great job teaching him how things are, how things work up here. Learning from a guy like that is going to make the difference, not just because he’s Spanish-speaking. He can teach him how to approach the game, how to deal with the press, what to do when things aren’t going well. That’s a great thing for Michael right now.”
Obvious enough in both these Felix/Pineda pieces is the fact that the situation serves as an almost flawless opportunity—obligation?—for Felix Hernandez to act as a leader and mentor. They’re both pitchers, they’re culturally similar and each have carried the weight of heavy expectations.
For Ichiro, no such opportunties are present. He’s a 37-year-old legend in the twighlight of his career. There isn’t a single other player on the roster who speaks his given language or has any idea what goes through his head on a day-to-day basis. With that in mind, it’s hard to blame him for taking more of a “lead by example” approach. It’s hard to blame him for anything because doing so implies he should do more than being one of the best players in the game.
That said, here’s a pipe-dream hypothetical to think about: What if papers followed up their Felix/Pineda features with 1,500 words on Ichiro’s proactive approach to showing Dustin Ackley how to be a professional hitter? After Ichiro spends part of his offseason brushing up on English, the two spend time watching tape as Ichiro educates the young infielder on pitch recognition, explaining how he chooses which balls to poke through the hole at short and which to loop into the gap for a double.
I feel uneasy simply describing this but is it that far outside of the realm of possibility? Should it be? I’ll acknowledge that expecting Ichiro to change his ways now is a bit unrealistic and, in bracing for the “Look at Griffey and Sweeney in 2010!” argument for downplaying leadership, I’ll say it makes some sense for your best players to offer that much-needed guidance.
I don’t intend to thrust Felix up above Ichiro, or demand that the right-fielder drastically change his role, but only offer up something to think about. It’d be nice if Ichiro took a more hands-on approach, but so would a lot of things. In developing successful teams and companies, I’ve heard culture must come first. Whatever anyone can do to improve the Mariners current culture for the better would be welcomed.
Original Story:
http://www.proballnw.com/03-2011/on-t...
