Ichiro Suzuki Becomes First Asian Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.75% of the Vote
I am not a big baseball fan. And I haven't really adopted the Mariners as my baseball team. But I loved Ichiro and seeing highlights. He was just clearly someone doing what he loved at an extremely high level.
I love this stat about his career:
Only once in his MLB career did Ichiro finish a game with his career batting average below .300. That came when he took an 0-for-4 in his second game as a rookie, making him 2-for-9 (.222) overall. He promptly went 2-for-4 in the next game and never looked back.
I had heard the stat before but I couldn't remember it exactly. I had to do some googling and found this MLB.com article from 2019 with 20 facts about Ichiro.
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Kent Baseball team circa 1920
Shared via the Kent city social media today in honor of the MLB All Star weekend.
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The History of the Seattle Mariners, Part 1
A friend turned me onto this six-part documentary on YouTube documenting the history of the Seattle Mariners. I nearly completely binged it on my flight home yesterday. I'm not declaring myself a Mariners fan (my wife and her family would not be happy) but I certainly appreciate the team a great deal more with this history.
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This incredible Japanese high school batter makes life hell for pitchers
Found via Boing Boing watch as Ko Yamaguchi puts this pitcher through the ringer.
Boing Boing also quotes from Larry Brown as he discusses Yamaguchi. It's fair to say that Larry Brown was also annoyed by the antics. Me? I'm entertained. Keep at it Yamaguchi.
I am also reminded of a TikTok I saw recently. The Tiktoker was telling the story of an interaction with a reclusive coworker who had been labeled "brilliant." In an effort to determine his opinions of his coworker, he decided to ask the other guy what the best sports were. After a pause the answer was, "Baseball and horse racing. Baseball starts as pitcher vs batter, then batter vs fielder, then fielder vs runner. And horse racing is the only sport to include animals."
I think this excellently highlights that first competition and that batters should strive to take every advantage afforded to them.
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How Rickey Henderson Became a Baseball Legend
Rickey Henderson is one of those athletes I worshiped as a kid growing up. This was a fun recap of his career and pointing out how absurdly good he was through his career.
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Hall of Famer Henry "Hank" Aaron dies at 86
I have to admit, I did not realize he was alive still. But now that he is gone I am reminded of one of the greats of baseball. Do yourself a favor and watch this clip as Hank hits his famous 715th homerun, the moment he surpassed Babe Ruth. Narrated by another great of the sport, this time a famed commentator: Vin Scully who gave a memorable quote of the era: "A black man is getting a standing ovation in the deep south."
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[{embed}]https://twitter.com/NBCSports/status/1352641181730091008\[{/embed}]
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