I'm headed off to my last baseball game of the year in a few hours. I haven't seen or written about baseball nearly as much as I had planned, due to our wacky home life and lack of tv at my house. But I've followed a lot of the season, including the dramatic walk off wins the past two days, one over the evil empire of Yankees.This season Ichiro broke yet another record, this time for most consecutive 200 hit seasons. There are not words for how amazing a ballplayer he is. I can never tire of watching him work magic with his bat. If there were words, actually, he would find them, since he is a quote machine. (One of my favorites: "If I start doing things I don't like, baseball won't be fun anymore.")
That some people even question his entrance in to the Hall of Fame someday astounds me. He holds the single season hit record, he's a career .333 hitter, a nine time Gold Glover. The lack of respect for what he does shocks me. He is one of the all time greats, and history will show that few people ever saw the ball and hit the ball like he did. The person whose record he just broke, Baltimore legend "Wee" Willie Keeler, used to say, "Hit 'em where they ain't." Ichiro has transcended that; he hits them wherever he wants, and if they are there, he outruns him. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer, and anyone who loves baseball and understands baseball would vote accordingly.
I'm sad for the end of the season. It has been a surprising success for the Mariner's, and they likely will finish above .500 after an abysmal 2008. We got to see Griffey come back, and even with a poor year seeing him in an M's uniform and watching him pal around with Ichiro was worth the nickel. I hope our situation is better next year, and I can make a few more games. Perhaps I can even hook up that televisual device and watch a few games on the picture tube. The prospect of a season in HD will inspire me to really work hard over the winter. We'll see how successful I am at convincing J to go all out.
Good luck tonight, Mariners. I'll be in the upper decks, sheltered from the rain, cheering wildly.
2 comments:
After he beat that record, of course, he was all over the news for days. And days. They conducted a poll at Narita airport. Asked about 30 different Americans coming off the plane about him and only 3 had ever heard of him. I gotta agree with you that he is an outstanding player-it's not always about the homeruns.
yeah only here in Seattle does he get the respect he deserves. truly amazing.
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