Ichiro -- discuss

It's more than, not over.

 

Speaking of babbling copy editors ... [/crossthread]

 

Yup. And you ain't have no point.

 

Well, we were having a pretty lively discussion on the topic at hand, until you decided to throw in your petty AP style threadjack.

 

I would also take into consideration the traditional manner in which names are used in Japan [as well as other countries]. The family name is the "first" name with the individual name being the "last" name. Hence Ichiro Suzuki becomes Suzuki Ichiro as Ryan Sonner would become Sonner Ryan. There may be other explanations for why he wears "Ichiro" on the back of his jersey as opposed to "Suzuki." I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it's for cultural reasons and not due to ego.

 

Yeah, it's tough -- the pitching over there is kind of at a Quad-A level compared to American baseball, with some exceptions (stars such as Nomo, Dice-K and Kaz Sasaki are going to be successful on any side of the pond.) But they just don't have many 94+ mph pitchers over there, for whatever reason, and that makes it easier for an American-bred hitter such as Tuffy Rhodes to tee off if he gets in a groove.

More emphasis on power hitting/lack of power pitching makes for the major difference in quality between U.S. professional baseball and Japanese professional baseball.

That said, I think it's safe to say the NPL is the second-best league in the world, no question about it. Much better than our AAA leagues, in the quality of play. (Again, the pitching is still Quad-A.) But we've seen how good Japanese position players have been when they've made the switch. There's not much difference there, and I would have no trouble saying that hundreds of average Japanese players could hold down MLB jobs that are going to average, or worse, U.S.-based players (Yuni Betancourt, anyone?) if they were given the chance.

It all goes back to the old Crash Davis line: ".350 -- that's a career, man. In any league."

And as we've seen since 2001, Ichiro is Ichiro. In any league.

 

Thank you for contributing nothing, little sock puppet.

 

He remains the only Japanese Major League Baseball player to use his first name on the back of his jersey. Using the first name on the back of the jersey didn't exactly sweep the Japan League.

From his wikipedia page:

"The Japanese name "Ichiro" is often written 一郎, meaning "first son". Ichiro's name, however, is written with a different character, 一朗, so that his name roughly means "brightest, most cheerful". He has an elder brother, Kazuyasu Suzuki, who is a fashion designer."

Easy to interpret the use as an "I am indeed Number ONE!" statement. In Japan it was a publicity stunt. Here, it's unnecessary.

He is Ichiro Suzuki. An awesome baseball player, whose first-name usage thankfully has not become an epidemic.

 

Oh, it was a publicity stunt here, too. And it wasn't a cultural thing -- pure marketing (or pure ego, if you're that cynical.)

It worked. More power to him.

Hey, if he hits .280 instead of .330 every year, it's another Andy Messersmith stunt and we're not having this discussion.

 

One of the best hitters to ever play the game, in all likelihood. And a Japanese baseball pioneer in a lot of ways.

He definitely has my vote.

 

Ichiro pulls off the difficult feat of being a worthy Hall of Famer and being overrated. He's a great hitter, but singles hitters aren't as valuable as sluggers. He's a very good outfielder, but corner outfield is the least important defensive position on the diamond.

 

It's true that there're big cultural differences between when you use the family vs. given name over there.

However, that is NOT the reason for the Ichiro thing, before him the custom had always been to put the family name on the jersey. It was definitely done as a publicity stunt at first. It stuck because, right after they did it, the guy exploded, had one of the greatest seasons in Japan's history, and he became one of those guys instantly known by one name by everyone in Japan, sort of like how Earvin Johnson became "Magic" here.

I guess he didn't have to keep the practice when he came here, but hey, it was working for him, why not.