Ichiro! in the Hall of Fame
I’m in Cooperstown, New York doing research. It’s my first trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and while I might write up a longer post on the whole trip if there’s interest, what I wanted to write up even across this super-slow internet straw is that Ichiro’s here. Not Ichiro! himself, which would have been even better, but in the “records” section, there’s a free-standing display case with an almost life-sized photo of him on each side, commemorating his record-breaking season… and it’s coooooooool.
Like most of the Hall of Fame sections, there’s a seemingly random collection of Ichiro-related stuff there: shoes, a jersey, gloves, his bat, Sisler bats, his sunglasses, a really cool Japanese scorecard of the record game. It’s interesting to see that the Japanese game notation looks barely like American standard game notation. Ichiro’s sunglasses, on close inspection, are not as cool as when Ichiro’s wearing them, but they’re still really slick-looking glasses.
Or, in short: I went through the musuem pretty quickly, and there was stuff I liked, but what really made my day was being reminded of Ichiro’s triumph, and seeing the ticket stubs from the game I was lucky enough to see.
I’m a fan.
Comments
25 Responses to “Ichiro! in the Hall of Fame”
Well, color me jealous. I was in NY in January with plans to see the HOF, but wound up getting really sick (darned airplane air!) and cut my trip short without making it to Cooperstown.
jason
I’ll definitely take you up on that longer post, DMZ. I’d love to get your perspective on the Hall. Soak it all in, and get back to us soon!
There’s interest. I don’t think I’ll be in Cooperstown anytime soon, so pictures would be nice, too. 😉
Derek, I’d definitely like to hear more about the Hall. Bill James wrote extensively about it as a destination and an institition (as well as a political entity) in “The Politics Of Glory,” and it left me wanting to know more.
I take it you’re being circumspect on what is is you’re researching, and what the research is for … but if you’re at liberty to tell, I’d like to know.
The collection of Ichiro stuff is pretty much whatever Ichiro decided to give them. The accounts at the time suggested Ichrio was being crazily generous, giving them pretty much anythng they wanted.
Asking us if we want more free, high-quality content is a bit silly. Of course we do.
Do share, and lucky you on the trip. My buddy and I (down in Oregon) wanted to goto that game so bad, we almost had tickets, but then didn’t. Later he managed to score 2 tickets for the game but I work Graveyard and could not get the night off (and since I had been pretty much talking to everyone I could about Ichiro and his run to the records it would have been a little to obvious.)
Anyways enjoy your trip!
So if he manages to bat .400 for a season, get 3,000 career hits, and – let’s hope – win a ring, how big is that display going to get?
I’m here!
3000 hits is an interesting argument. He currently has 924. Most Japanese players don’t play much past the age of 40, I believe, so let’s say he’s got 10 years left in him. He’d need 2076. Or about 208 per season, on average. I think this is attainable, but that’s barring any injury or career slowdown.
Granted, even for Ichiro, .400 might be a tall order, too. That’s a lot of hits, considering how many at bats he tends to put in.
How soon is too soon to start debating his merits of getting inducted?
The merits of Ichiro and the HoF have been argued on this very site, even.
http://ussmariner.com/?p=1930
Fortunately Ichiro is small and light. His type of body is far less prone to breakdown than those of us who are bigger in stature, so to speak. I could easily see him being a Ricky Henderson-type, in which case 3,000 hits should be attainable. I’d just like to see Bavasi get the contract-for-life done. If Ichiro were to do it anywhere else (and I don’t think it will happen), it would be a tragedy.
Ichiro has a good shot at getting a lot more merchandise into the Hall of Fame before he is done.
The Hall likes players that impact and change the game. He’s the first Japanese mega-star to move the U.S. in any “superstar” type of way. Even if he doesn’t get all the digits to shue himself in, he’ll surely get the votes for completing the bridge between MLB and Japan baseball. Before godzilla, there was Ichiro…sorry I can’t say the same for Nomo. Besides, that .400 from Ichi could be right on the horizon…and then they shall not deny.
I know you guys don’t like those kind of lofty, unfounded projections as posts, but I don’t care, I’m e-mailing from a bar in Kansas. And besides, I’m just copying some other guy’s thoughts anyway.
Bridge? I didn’t even know there was a bridge to Japan…
I tell ya, the town of Cooperstown is just as impressive as the HOF. I grew up a little over 3 hours from Cooperstown and never even knew it existed besides the HOF. I spent 25 years of life in the area and never went. Finally I made the family go as part of a cross country road trip (east to west) last summer. Man, what a blast. The town is on the shores a big lake, there’s lots of old school residential mansion architecture to admire, the streets are full of kids visiting the HOF between breaks at their baseball camps and you can buy any sort of baseball related merchandise with a short walk down main street.
If you get a chance to visit the town and the HOF do so. My 4 daughters and wife found it a very enjoyable day. We even took some time at Doubleday Field to watch a little league game and eat some ice cream.
BTW – I’ve already predicted that Ichiro’s personal goal is to hit .400 this year.
I predict that Ichiro’s goal is to get on base every at-bat. Of course, I can see how many people think it reasonable to believe he aspires to making outs 60 percent of the time ….
Hey, out of curiosity, is the Hall done its renovations? I was last there in the winter of 2003-2004, and there were huge sections of it completely inaccessible, which kinda sucked. I can’t tell from looking at their webpage whether it’s done now or will be done by the ceremonies this summer. I still have a voucher to come back for free when they’re done 🙂
OT- I’m watching the M’s on TV and Franklin sucks. 1IP, 3H, 3ER, 3BB.
On hall renovations — short answer is “No, they are not done”
Welcome to the rotation, Aaron Sele. Try not to … you know, be you.
I’d love to see your account of The Hall… I was there in 2000 with my (then) 12-year old son. We spent three days and it was idyllic – early October, the M’s were playing the White Sox in the playoffs. We visited the Hall each day, grabbed some takeout and headed to our motel to watch two games. Heaven.
Bring it on!
Sheesh. More Ichiro hagiography?
For the (cough) hits record?
I hope someone doesn’t break the productive outs record soon… call Buster Olney
Jessh, some people are churlish.
How about the “not even close to being approached in recent memory” hits record?
We’ve talked about the importance of the hits record here extensively. If you didn’t know what you were getting into, okay — but that train’s left the station. Ship’s left port. Car’s out of the garage. Bike’s off the rack. Shoes.. uhh.. laced up?
Personally I think that a consensus will form that Ichiro should be enshrined by the time he becomes eligible. It’s only natural that there is no consensus yet, however. This depends of course on him performing at least on about the same level as he has for another 5 or 6 years before starting to tail off. I think he will age well. He does not have any injury problems now and I don’t see any reason to think he will in the near future unless he has a freak accident of some sort. I think he may even get better, although I am aware that 28 is supposed to be the athletic peak.
Ichiro’s fanatical conditioning and control of body lead me to think that he’s not going to see much decline. He makes me think of Roger Clemens in that regard.
I love talk of the HOF!!!
I got a Baseball Encyclopedia when I was 12, and haven’t stopped marvelling over who’s in, who’s out, and how some of those greats just had staggering numbers. And they’ve done it so many different ways. I suggested a long time ago that Ichiro will get in the Hall even if he sucks the rest of his career because of his impact on the game (unless he gambles of course). The fact that he hit MORE often last year is astounding, the kind of thing that you see in a HOF career.
Speaking of the Hall, I believe the team with the most HOFers at one time is the 1931 Yankees with 9*, but it’s alot of fun to look at other teams that have had 6+.
*Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, Sewell, Lazzeri, Combs, L.Gomez, Ruffing, Pennock (if you’re a slightly above average pitcher wanting to get into the hall of fame, you need to pitch for the 1920’s/30’s Yankees for a decade)