Miami Herald- Ichiro has accomplished about all there is to accomplish in baseball. He recorded his 3,000th hit last season and is a virtual lock for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame once his playing days are over.
Ichiro has no intention of stopping anytime soon, anytime before he turns 50.
“Nobody knows what the future holds,” he said. “But the way I feel, how I’m thinking, I feel like nothing can stop me from doing it.”
Why rest now?
“When you retire from baseball, you have until the day you die to rest,” he said.
And when the day finally comes to retire?
“I think I’ll just die,” he said.
Opening Day is coming up in the MLB, and no one, no one is as prepared as Ichiro Suzuki. The guy lives and breathes for the game, apparently so much that he just assumes once he retires he'll just die. Let's hope that's not the case because he should at least wait until he gets into the H.O.F as the "Singles King". The guy has 2,464 singles in his career, which is 7th all time currently.
The article above though is crazy. I don't think I ever realized how much work Ichiro does and how completely obsessed with the game of baseball he truly is. He doesn't take vacations or take a day to just sit on the couch. I don't get how he keeps up with shows like Game of Thrones or House of Cards if he isn't binge watching.
His offseason is a total of 3 days according to him and his translator. Constantly in the cage and is so into his routine that he has a cargo container behind the clubhouse. A CARGO CONTAINER! It's filled with a bunch of different machines probably made in a mad scientists lab that keeps Ichiro in shape. I wouldn't be shocked. The guy is 43, but is in better shape than at least 60% of the league.
 |
| Ichiro in his container |
His view on baseball is kind of similar to Vin Scully's yesterday. It's either do the aspect of baseball you love, in Scullys case announcing, in Ichiros it's playing or avoid the game and die. He wants to play at least until he is 50, so just like Tom Brady we're expecting to see No. 51 take the field for another 7 years. In that time he will climb the all-time hit list where he currently sits at No. 25. All he has to do this season is get 81 hits, and he will be in the top 20. When it's all said and done, Ichiro Suzuki should be a top 10 hitter in the history of the MLB. Just imagine if he had played his entire career in the league. Pete Rose wouldn't be the hit king, that I could guarantee.
Ichiro in his 25 years of playing professional baseball in both Japan and MLB has totaled 4,308 hits. In general, he has more hits at the professional level of baseball than anyone else ever. That's impressive and shows that his work ethic paid off, since the man just continues to go.
P.S. Let's not forget the guy has a cannon arm.
Comments
Post a Comment