Ichiro hit record at risk?

[Bucky]

[IkemenTommy]

I don't think Ichiro gives a shit about his Japanese record.

[canman]

I think he does, he seems to be a real petty little bastard, but I still think they will pitch to the guy, and hopefully he will break it. That is what records are made for.

[Level3]

So, will this be a repeat of the infamous Sadaharu Oh cases?

I don't think Ichiro could/would interefere like Oh did, though. If not solely because it would ruin his image in the USA.

http://www.amiannoying.com/(S(4slypybefvlvl4iia3feb055))/collection.aspx?collection=7510

[sublight]

He's at 205 hits so far, with 11 games left. He got two more hits yesterday, so it seems they're pitching to him.

[Greji]

He's at 205 hits so far, with 11 games left. He got two more hits yesterday, so it seems they're pitching to him.

I watched that, but it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets right at the record. When Randy Bass got to 55 dingers and tied Oh's record, they intentionally walked him, or went out of the strike zone with every pitch for his last game or two. He never got a pitch to hit.

At least Tuffy Rhodes got a couple of chances when he got to 55, but they still pitched him away for the most part. Obviously not as bad as Bass's chance, but still enough to know they weren't going to let him have the record.

They could be petty enough to do this, as hits represent the "small ball" image that NPB likes to believe it plays better than any other country in the world.

[Behan]

Somewhere I (think) I remember Rhodes telling his team's pitchers to pitch to Cabrera. He said he didn't want (a share of) the record if it were going to be protected.

[Greji]

Somewhere I (think) I remember Rhodes telling his team's pitchers to pitch to Cabrera. He said he didn't want (a share of) the record if it were going to be protected.

Bishop Behan has notified me that my post was wrong. I checked so I could jump on his shit and damned if he wasn't right (as usual.) Randy Bass had 54 homeruns in 1985. They wouldn't pitch to him over the last games and the big flare came in the last game against the Giants when they intentionally walked him everytime he came to the plate.

[FG Lurker]

I think he'll do it.

1) Orix Blue Wave as a team is gone (well, merged and moved)
2) Ichiro has "abandoned" J-ball and since established far bigger records in the US.
3) 11 games to go and he only needs 6 hits. They'd have to walk him a LOT of times to stop it from happening. Not impossible but not as easy to do as it would be with just one or two games remaining.

[Behan]

They wouldn't pitch to him over the last games and the big flare came in the last game against the Giants when they intentionally walked him everytime he came to the plate.

Did the media ignore what was happening? I would imagine that maybe the Kansai and Kanto press would see things differently.

Years back the Japan Times wrote an article on this topic with a picture of some FG ball player holding his bat upside down because they wouldn't pitch to him.

[IkemenTommy]

Years back the Japan Times wrote an article on this topic with a picture of some FG ball player holding his bat upside down because they wouldn't pitch to him.

Wasn't that originally from the movie Mr. Baseball?

[sublight]

Well, he broke the record. He comes off as pretty gracious about it, too. Good on him.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sb20101006j1.html

"First of all, I have a lot of respect for [Ichiro]," Murton said. "He's one of the best players in baseball. In fact he's doing something in the States that only Pete Rose and himself have done," he added, citing Ichiro recording his 10th 200-hit season in the majors.

"Secondly, I believe he did it in 1994. 1994 and 2010 are two different seasons. One thing is he played 130. We're playing 144. It is what it is. It's a great honor and I'm very excited about the honor. But again, in terms of Ichiro, this doesn't change anything for him. He's one of the best players in baseball."