Something I Never Knew I Badly Wanted to See Until It Happened

by Julian Spivey
Sometimes you never truly know how badly you wanted something until it happens.

​As soon as I saw the words “Ichiro is coming in to pitch” on Sunday while scrolling through my Twitter feed I knew this was something I desperately wanted to see.

I immediately fired up the MLB.tv app on my television and found the Miami Marlins/Philadelphia Phillies game, a game between two of the very worst teams in all of baseball that I’m sure few were watching until they read the very words I had that piqued my interest. The game was somewhat out of hand 6-2 with the Phillies leading in the bottom of the eighth, as you would expect with a position player coming to the mound.

I guess pitching in a Major League Baseball game had long been on Ichiro Suzuki’s bucket list and he had talked Marlins manager Dan Jennings into letting him get an inning in before the season ended. When the MLB.tv app finally loaded Ichiro had already allowed a double to Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera. When I tuned in Suzuki was pitching to Phillies infielder Darnell Sweeney, who promptly laced a double into the outfield to score Herrera on the first pitch I saw Ichiro throw. Alas, Ichiro wouldn’t have a perfect or even scoreless inning of work in his Major League pitching debut, but things were about to get crazy as hell. I noticed that Ichiro was throwing a fastball in the upper 80s, topping out at 88 MPH, which fascinated me coming from an outfielder who will turn 42 later this month. Ichiro has always had one of the best arms from the outfield, but that flat out flabbergasted me.

If that wasn’t surprising enough what would happen in Phillies infielder Freddy Galvis’ at-bat against Ichiro would leave my jaw agape and I’m not sure it’ll ever find its way all the way back to its natural position. Ichiro, who had just been throwing his mid-to-upper 80s fastball, broke off a breaking ball so devastating that Galvis, a guy who drove in 50 runs this year, flailed away at it as if Clayton Kershaw himself was on the mound. Ichiro would induce a groundout and couple of fly balls to end the inning.

I’m not being the least bit facetious when I say it may have been my favorite inning of baseball all season long.

I’ve always loved watching Ichiro play the game of baseball and realize the importance he’s had on the game, which I think has always been underrated and underestimated. Ichiro really was the first great Asian position player to come to the Major Leagues and he’s really been the only great one since his arrival. Five years after his retirement he’ll no doubt be the first ever Asian born player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I always loved watching Ichiro play because he was such a great hitter, one of the greatest of all-time, but did so in a unique way by slapping the ball all over the field. Watching Ichiro hit a ball on the infield and beat the throw out at first base will always be one of the most fascinating things I’ll ever see in the game. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch Ichiro play as much as I would’ve liked with him spending the majority of his career, and all of his great years, with a mostly bad Seattle Mariners team. Oftentimes the only time I’d get to see him shine would be in the Midsummer Classic. But, in an era with inflated numbers due to rampant performance enhancing drug use Ichiro was a breath of fresh air.

Watching him get to do something he’s apparently always wanted to do on Sunday was an absolute blast and at his age and due to the fact that he hasn’t been a regular position player for multiple seasons now it wouldn’t be too surprising if his performance on the mound was the last time we’ll ever see him play. I hope this isn’t the case as he’s only 65 hits away from 3,000 for his MLB career and has already gone over 4,000 (something only Pete Rose and Ty Cobb had ever done) for his career when you throw in his professional numbers from Japan, where he began his career.

Ichiro is a lovable guy and has always been a pleasure to watch. That breaking pitch he threw that made Galvis look like a little leaguer on Sunday was one of the most pleasuring things I’ve seen in sports in a while. 

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