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LTtxfan

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Beau Vine
Beau Vine

Laughed until I cried...So how do I walk?  really got me.  

shadow_operative2.0
shadow_operative2.0

This throw deserves the MLB thread.   

Beau Vine
Beau Vine

So in 2009, my daughter and I were in Omaha at the CWS.  I got an email from her softball coach saying that they had a kid drop off the All-Star team and would she want to replace her?  But she'd have

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ztejas

ztejas 43244

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Decent game on ESPN. Abreu just destroyed a breaking ball to the 3rd deck left field. 3-1 Twins T6th. 

61 RBI's on .250 for Abreu. Kind of a weird statline on the year. That's some timely hitting.

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4 hours ago, elguapo said:

Genius move by Manfred having 0 day games when many have today off.
 

Yeah... but it was a huge slate yesterday and most of these guys didn't get the 4th off. Tit for tat. Not his fault the 4th is on the weekend. 

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Beau Vine

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Laughed until I cried...So how do I walk?  really got me.

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Twenty years ago, Ichiro Suzuki joined the Seattle Mariners, so The Athletic asked former teammates, managers, executives and rivals to explain the wonder, absurdity and hilarity of the Ichiro experience.

Joba Chamberlain, Yankees teammate: Oh, I mean, do we have enough time for Ichiro stories?

Dee Strange-Gordon, Marlins and Mariners teammate: Man, there are so many things going through my head.

Aaron Sele, Mariners teammate: I don’t think people realized how funny he was.

Mike Sweeney, Royals first baseman and Mariners teammate: In 2000, I was part of the MLB All-Star team that went to Japan to play in the Goodwill Series against the Japanese all-stars. Ichiro didn’t play because he was preparing to sign with Seattle. Everyone knew about Ichiro. While we were in Japan, every time an American player got a base hit, you’d hear the term, “Nice batting,” in a Japanese accent over the speaker system. It would say on the jumbotron: “Nice batting.” I thought, “Wow, that’s a kind common gesture.” So in 2001, it’s the first few weeks of the season, and we’re playing against the Mariners. So, of course, he hits a line drive over the shortstop’s head for a single. With total respect, I didn’t know if he knew any English. So I looked over, and, in my imitation of what I heard in Japan, I said, “Ichiro, nice batting.” And he looks at me and goes, “Mike Sweeney, nice ass.”

Shawn Kelley, Mariners teammate: He’s hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. 

Bret Boone, Mariners teammate: Opening Day, 2001. I’m taking my position at second base, and there was a veteran umpire out there, a guy that’s been there forever. He comes up to me and goes, “Boonie, what’s up, how are you doing?” And he goes, “What the hell’s up with your right fielder?” I said, “What are you talking about?” He goes, “He runs by me and I say to him, ‘Hey, Ichiro, welcome to America.’” And Ichiro looks at him and says, “What’s happening, home slice,” and keeps running to his position.

David Aardsma, Mariners teammate: “Suck it” was one of his favorite sayings. We were facing the Yankees in Seattle. He hit a walk-off homer off Mariano Rivera. … He’s rounding the bases, and as he’s running home, he stops about 10 feet short of home plate, jumps, does the “suck it” sign and yells, “Suck it!” And then touches home plate. 

Eduardo Perez, Mariners teammate: One of the most eccentric people I’ve ever played with.

Brendan Ryan, Mariners and Yankees teammate: Has anybody told you about his high fives? I’d come in after scoring a run and I’d get this like two-finger swipe across my hand. I was like, “What is that all about? Nobody’s ever done that. It’s a weird thing to do.” It’s like a dead fish with the pointer and middle finger out, together, and then he comes and touches your palm and just swipes it. Like, “Uh, OK.” But he does it every single time, and it was because he didn’t want to jam a finger.

Brian McCann, Yankees teammate: One of the first series when I went to New York, I went in to get batting gloves or something out of my locker in like the eighth inning. Ichiro was in full cleats, and he was doing sprints in the clubhouse. In cleats, dead sprints, 40 years old, to go play defense in the ninth.

Sweeney: He’s the absolute best.

CC Sabathia, Yankees teammate: Ichi gave the best speeches at the All-Star Game.

Randy Winn, Mariners teammate: This is 2002. I’m at the All-Star Game and Joe Torre is the manager. Joe brings us all in and says something very nice, very professional, very Joe Torre, very even and monotone.

Sweeney: You could hear a pin drop as Joe Torre’s speaking to us.

Winn: After he finishes, he goes, “All right, Ichiro, what do you have to say?” I was like, “Wow, why is he calling Ichiro? Of all people to say something …”

Jim Leyland, Tigers manager: All of the sudden he pops up: “Let’s kick their fucking fat asses.”

Michael Young, Rangers second baseman: As loud as he could.

A.J. Pierzynski, Twins catcher: And that was it.

Winn: I was like, “Wait, what?” And everybody cheered like, “Yeaaaaah!”

Rick Griffin, Mariners trainer: By the time we got to 2010, he’d added a few more lines to it and had added some more F-bombs.

Young: Every year, whenever the manager said, “Does anyone have anything to add,” everyone would point both their fingers at Ichiro.

Sweeney: It was almost an unwritten rule: Ichiro would always have the last word.

Young: Every year the decibel level would go up a little more to create a different effect. But every year it was the same thing: “Let’s go kick their fucking fat asses.”

Griffin: He dropped many, many F-bombs in many different varieties and different forms. Just screaming and yelling and hopping up and down — and then he walked away and sat down like nothing happened.

Winn: Like nothing happened.

Ichiro Suzuki and Derek Jeter
Ichiro Suzuki and Derek Jeter in 2014. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
Griffin: Before every home game, he would walk into the kitchen after batting practice. We had a chef named Chef Jeremy, and he would have seven chicken wings on a plate for him. 

Chef Jeremy Bryant: The Mariners called me and said, “Hey, you should really brush up on your Japanese food and be ready.” So I started practicing how to roll sushi. Just some of the basic stuff. Opening Day comes, and I had been working on Japanese food for a while. Ichiro comes in and I’ve got all this Japanese food ready. And he goes, “Do you have a cheeseburger?” 

Scott Servais, Mariners manager: He played for us for a month and a half and there wasn’t a roster spot for him, but he stayed with the club. Toward the end of the season, I realized I had never seen him eat in the clubhouse. Typically, we have a pregame spread and a postgame spread. One day, I asked him what he has for lunch every day. He said: “Burger.”

John McLaren, Mariners manager: His translator would say, “Oh, he’s going to get a burger. It’s that time.”

Servais: I said, “You eat a burger every day?” He rattles off places like Five Guys, In-N-Out. I asked if that was the best burger he could come up with. He said, “Yes, I just love burgers.”

Bryant: I didn’t have any cheeseburgers, but I had just started marinating these wings. I was going to make them Latin-style. I had squeezed the lime, I had some garlic, some green onions. He saw that I had wings, and he goes, “Oh, wings!” I grabbed some teriyaki sauce and some sweet chili sauce and just kind of threw together this recipe literally in 10 minutes.

Sweeney: They called them Ichi wings.

Bryant: He literally ate those every home game for 10 years. Except on a day game he would change it up and he would have a corndog, of all things. He would have two corndogs. These were the cheap, Costco corndogs, and they could not be microwaved. They had to be baked in the oven so they would get crispy.

Sweeney: He was a creature of habit.

Chamberlain: During the game, he would only eat plum balls made by his wife. Plum balls.

Griffin: He knew where every single California Pizza Kitchen was in every city that we stayed in. And whether it was five minutes away or 45 minutes away, he had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. He had double cheese, extra sauce and lightly cooked. Every time.

Bryant: I would tell the security guys, “In the fridge when everybody is gone, there’s a couple steaks in there for you. Eat anything you want.” One day, I knew I was going to come in late so I had prepared Ichiro’s wings. I came in and the security guys had eaten them. I was like, “Oh man!” I was freaking out. There was like an hour until Ichiro comes back there. I ran to the nearest teriyaki joint and grabbed anything that was similar. It was the same recipe, but he looked at me and goes, “Chef J. Today, wings no good.”

Griffin: He would come in every day when he got to the ballpark, and he would weigh himself. … And if he weighed 171.8 then he would eat a little more so the next day he would come in and weigh 172. If he weighed 172.3 then the next day he would eat a little bit less so he would weigh 172.

Bryant: He actually started out with nine wings. He came in one year and said, “Chef J, I’m gaining weight, so I can only have seven wings.” And then he did seven wings for a while. And then by the end he was only doing five because he was thinking he was gaining weight.

Griffin: Just the most routine-oriented person.

Bryant: I went up to Ichi and said, “Hey, what do you think of selling these wings out in the stands?” And he goes, “Let me think about it.” I’m not even exaggerating: Four years go by. I get a call from his interpreter in the offseason. He goes, “Chef J, I just wanted to let you know. Ichiro said go ahead with the wings idea.”

McLaren: He would hold his bat up, and I called it the magic wand.

Winn: We have a day off so we’re not playing in spring training. We go inside and we’re lifting weights and doing extra work. I’ve always kind of been a student of the game, so I was like, “I’m going to ask Ichiro some hitting questions.” We were in the weight room, and I said, “Hey, Ichiro, what’s your thought process — your strategy — when you’re going into a game? Do you try to go up your first at-bat and get one hit first, and then if you get one you try to add on? What’s your mind-frame going into a game? Are you just trying to get one first?” And he looks at me, deadpan, and goes, “I try to get five.”

Strange-Gordon: If Ichi makes a really nice play, like he throws somebody out or gets a big hit, you’d say, “That atta boy Ich!” And he’d literally go, “It’s obvious.”

Winn: It’s myself, Ichiro, Bret and Edgar (Martinez). Bret said something like, “Ichiro, how do you do it?” And Ichiro, without missing a beat, turns to him, stone-faced, and goes, “It’s obvious.”

Chamberlain: That should literally be the title of your article: “It’s obvious.”

Strange-Gordon: He had just signed with the Marlins, and we hit every day. You know me: I’m just watching everything. I go, “Ichi, question. At the beginning of the second half last year, they told me they wanted me to walk more, so I started taking pitches, but I started to strike out.” He said, “No, no, no.” I said, “So how do I walk?” He said, “You rake first, then they’ll walk you.”

Sele: His first year, in spring training, guys were taking BP, and I believe that he was hitting with Jay (Buhner) and Edgar. They were cranking line drives all over the place, no big deal. Ichiro was just staying inside the ball and just flipping the ball to left field with no real impact. Lou (Piniella) starts to get on him, saying something like, “Son, you’ve got to get behind the ball. Drive the ball.” Ichiro puts his finger to his lips and says, “Shhhhhh. I’ve got a plan.”

McLaren: Lou asked him, “Son, do you ever turn on a ball? Do you ever pull the ball?” He just nodded his head and said, “Sometimes.” And Lou goes, “OK, well, I’d like to see it. I’d just like to see you turn on a ball.” So we start the game that night, and he hits one to right field way back on the berm. I mean, he crushed it. So he comes back to the dugout and he’s getting ready to go down the steps and he stops and he looked at Lou and he says, “Is that turn on ball, Lou?”

Sweeney: When you would see Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro taking batting practice together, it was unbelievable. It was like watching a video game. It was just majestic home run after majestic home run.

Kelley: Ichiro loved Griffey. Like, loved Griffey. 

Bryant: Griffey would tickle him.

Kelley: They would full-on be wrestling around in the locker room on the couches before games, and Ichiro would just be giggling.

Bryant: It would be right during something serious, and you’d look over and Griffey would just tackle him. 

Aardsma: It was nonstop.

Kelley: Griffey would get Ichiro talking shit back to him. He’d be calling Griffey names. At one point, Griffey got a photo of Ichiro and Ichiro’s dog, and I think they were on a private jet. He flew his dog on the private jet when he came to America. Somehow, Griffey got a photo and he got it photoshopped and he overlaid his face with the dog. And he framed it and put it in Ichiro’s locker. 

Aardsma: Ichiro had a tie made with Griffey on it, so the whole team wore the tie with Ken Griffey Jr. on it. So Griffey went and got a picture with him and Ichiro’s family and put himself in the picture. Like, as if he were Ichiro. God damn, that was hilarious. 

Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki
Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki in 2010. (Otto Greule Jr. / Getty Images)
Kelley: He can be funny and sarcastic and just have a straight face; that’s why he’s so funny.

Perez: I get traded to Seattle and I get there and I’m playing one game and I make an out. I sit in a spot early on that was Ichiro’s. Everyone in Seattle knew it but me. That’s where all his bats were and everything. So I sit there and all of the sudden Ichiro comes back and sort of sits on my lap. Now, mind you, I’m pissed off that I just made an out. But he doesn’t say anything, he just has half of his butt cheek on my lap, sitting down.

Young: He got on second base and I was playing second base. At this point, I had no idea if he even spoke English. We were in Texas in the middle of the summer. It was just blistering down there, and I go, “What’s up, man?” He looks at me with a straight face and says, “It’s hotter than rats fucking in a wool sock.”

Kelley: Our travel secretary was named Ron Spellacy. … I don’t think we were playing great, we were on a long road trip, and we’d had a couple travel issues. Félix (Hernández) and (Adrián) Beltré over the years would yell, “Spellacy!!” Just screaming at him from the back of the plane, to kind of be funny but also to be like, “What are we doing?” We’re in security trying to get on the tarmac. It felt like we sat there for an hour. Of course, a bunch of baseball players, we’re having some beers and just trying to get to the next city, sitting on the bus, not moving. So finally, it gets quiet, and Ichiro, out of nowhere, goes, “Spellaaaaccyyyy!!!”

Bryant: The players would always watch the Little League World Series. There was this kid in there who looked like he was 30 and was about 200 pounds. I’m a chubby guy, too. The Mariners had just lost, this brutal loss. Everyone is all pissy and mad, and it’s super quiet. They zoom in on this kid pitching and Ichiro looks up and goes: “Everyone! It’s Chef J!”

Kelley: The joke was always to get someone to call Derek Jeter by his middle name: Sanderson. People joked and snickered but nobody would do it. Well, Ichiro catches wind of it. We were in one of the older locker rooms, and Jeter … walks in and Ichiro is like: “Sanderson!”

Chamberlain: From what I heard before he came over, he would always get to second base and see Derek and be like, “Hey, my brother from another mother.”

Kelley: Jeter just gives him the death stare and makes a little joke back. But the funniest part is, Ichiro never sits still; he’s always moving. He’s either stretching or going somewhere or studying film. You’ll never see Ichiro just sitting there. But he sat there for minutes at his locker with his head down, just giggling. People were belly laughing. Not at the fact that Ichiro did it, but the fact that Ichiro thought it was so funny.

Jerry Dipoto, Mariners general manager: We signed Ichiro in spring training. The morning of the press conference, his agent, John Boggs, calls and asks what we’re planning. I told him we were expecting a big turnout, maybe a couple dozen people. I had never met Ichiro. He said, “OK,” and that Ichiro wants to do something subtle, maybe golf shirts, keep it on the down low. I said, “Sure, good for me. I’ll throw on a Mariners’ polo.” I go over to the ballpark and Boggs and his son are there in golf shirts and khaki pants. He comes rolling in in this blacked-out-windows SUV. They come in the back door and up the back stairway. Ichiro comes walking around the corner, the hair is jet black and he’s wearing these dark, dark sunglasses, and he’s wearing what I would estimate to be a $15,000 suit.

Scott Spiezio, Mariners teammate: I always called him GQ.

Dipoto: He walks into the office and says, “Jerrrrrry.” He goes to shake my hand, and I slapped him on the chest before shaking his hand and said, “That’s a casual golf shirt?” And he said, “It’s casual to me.”

Spiezio: You don’t see guys like that come along very often.

Winn: I don’t even have words for how amazing it was to watch.

Sweeney: He was the best.

 

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WBT

WBT 20397

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36 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

Teoscar just made an Elway-esque throw from deep right field to gun someone at home plate and end what could have been a big inning for the O's. 

edit: no video yet, but he gunned a guy from here and it wasn't particularly close:

 

2AE177AA-C4E8-4638-AA11-9EFE90AB7FE4.jpeg

 

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Helobious

Helobious 9477

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Yankees turned to Chad green to get the save tonight. 
 

Pretty safe to say that Chapman is done as a major leaguer. I’m sure he’ll get some mop up duty here & there, but I’d bet anything he’ll never record another save. The guy just doesn’t have it anymore. I remember the first time I saw him he was playing with the Cuban national team. He was probably a shitty person but the dude had a hell of a career, lit up the radar gun like no one else.

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shadow_operative

shadow_operative 15931

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7 hours ago, Helobious said:

Yankees turned to Chad green to get the save tonight. 
 

Pretty safe to say that Chapman is done as a major leaguer. 

lmao, this is why so many people still give you so much shit. one month ago Chapman was untouchable. now he sucks for what, a nine inning stretch or something, and in your eyes that makes it clear that he's done as a major leaguer. Craig Kimbrel had an ERA of 6.00 and a whip of 1.52 for two entire seasons and he's back to being one of the most dominating closers in the league. but oh no, nine bad innings for Arolids and it's back to Cuba. give me a break. 

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On 7/5/2021 at 5:53 PM, Huckleberry said:

I mean those might actually be closer to decent if they didn't use a lighter orange for no reason whatsoever. And by decent I mean relative to all the random one off jerseys they come out with just to sell more merchandise.

From Bay Area Sports:

But your San Francisco Giants’ latest uniforms — which will be worn this weekend against the Washington Nationals, and every Tuesday home game for the remainder of the season — were released Monday to particularly scathing reviews. The Mercury News declared they “look like a bottle of Glacier Freeze Gatorade,” a lifelong season ticket-holder at SFGate writes that they're “unfortunately hideous” and “uninteresting, uninspiring and underwhelming all at once.” The Chronicle rages the new uniforms “violate the sanctity of baseball itself.”

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shadow_operative

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7 hours ago, Helobious said:

Yankees turned to Chad green to get the save tonight. 
 

Pretty safe to say that Chapman is done as a major leaguer. I’m sure he’ll get some mop up duty here & there, but I’d bet anything he’ll never record another save. The guy just doesn’t have it anymore. I remember the first time I saw him he was playing with the Cuban national team. He was probably a shitty person but the dude had a hell of a career, lit up the radar gun like no one else.

i legit never even made it past the part where you say that he's done as a major leaguer until now. wow. the rest of your post is a runaway train of ignorance and stupidity. i'm down to "bet anything" with you that he does record another save between now and his retirement, despite your moving obit on his career. you just let me know what you want to wager and i'm sure we can make it happen. 

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