Geoff Baker, the Mariners excellent beat writer from the Seattle Times, has been writing about the Mariners rebuilding and within there is talk about Ichiro and his popularity in the Mariners clubhouse. The more I read it, the more it doesn’t make much sense to me.
“I just can’t believe the number of guys who really dislike him,” said one clubhouse insider. “It got to a point early on when I thought they were going to get together and go after him.”
The coaching staff and then-manager John McLaren intervened when one player was overheard talking — in reference to Ichiro — about wanting to “knock him out.” A team meeting was called to clear the air.
It was a repeat of May 2007, when Mike Hargrove was in charge and a team meeting had to be called during a series at Tampa Bay because of clubhouse bickering over Ichiro being a “selfish” player.
Now there is a certain part of me that can see that. His goal of getting 200 hits a season is in itself, selfish. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that working the count for a walk is more valuable than grounding out because you’re stuck on 199 hits, but facts are facts. 200 hits, 100 runs, stealing at over 75% and stellar defense help the team, period. Calling him “selfish” is clearly a mask for some other reason that they really don’t like him. Ichiro is a weird guy and he’s Japanese and he works out by himself, he doesn’t exactly appeal himself to guys from La Crosse or guys with OPS+s of 65. But as Bob Sugar said to Jerry Maguire it’s not show friends, it’s show business. Who cares if you like the guy? Ichiro is a good baseball player whose contributions give the team a chance to win and to want to punch him for that is completely unintelligent.
It’s also stupid because I’m pretty sure Ichiro could beat up every single player on the 40 man roster.
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