October 22 – Happy Birthday Ichiro Suzuki
I’ve always admired the way Ichiro Suzuki played the game of baseball, but since he did it mostly in Seattle I would never have classified myself as a huge “Ichi” fan. I am now.
When the Yankees learned in late July of the 2012 regular season that their injured starting outfielder, Brett Gardner was unlikely to return to the active roster before the end of the year, they traded pitchers D. J. Mitchell and Danny Farquhar to the Mariners for the aging native of Kasugai, Japan. I liked the deal immediately because I thought New York had missed Gardner’s defense and his run-scoring ability and by adding Suzuki they were actually getting someone who was an even better outfielder and run scorer than Gardner.
From the moment he put on the pinstripes, it has been a pleasure to watch this guy play the game. Unlike most of the high-paid sluggers in this current Yankee lineup, Suzuki is content to take what he is given from opposing pitchers and as a result, he’s a very tough out. What was most surprising to me, however, was his ability to turn on an inside fastball and drive it easily into Yankee Stadium’s short right field porch.
The highpoint of his first year as a Yankee was a five-game mid-September stretch he put together against the Blue Jays and Orioles. He went 14-20 in those games, scoring seven runs, driving in five and New York won them all. Without that five game win streak, the Yankees would have not won the AL East and without Suzuki, there would have been no five game win streak.
He ended up appearing in 67 regular season games for New York in 2012 and hitting .322. For some idiot reason, the Yankees had him batting at the bottom of the order when he first joined the team, because I think he would have scored a lot more runs than the 28 he did manage. After hitting just .217 in the Yankee victory over Baltimore in the ALDS, Suzuki was the only member of New York’s lineup who could hit Detroit pitching in the 2012 ALCS, averaging .353 against the Tigers.
Even though he turns 39-years-old today, New York should make every effort to sign Suzuki for at least the 2013 season and if he insists, the 2014 season as well. He shares his October 22nd birthday with one of his own Yankee teammates.
