Word: ichiro
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This has been a tough summer for Japanese baseball. Stadiums have been relatively empty, and televised games have attracted far fewer fans, many of whom prefer to tune in each morning to watch live broadcasts of the Seattle Mariners, featuring Japanese stars Ichiro Suzuki and Kazuhiro Sasaki. In the U.S., Japanese players are the new thing, the "It" boys of baseball. Back home, the national sport has spent summer in the dumps...
...couple of lackluster seasons, he came to Japan in 1996 to play for the Kintetsu Buffaloes in Osaka, where he quickly became a star. "They gave me a chance to play here," he says, gratefully. "They made my career possible." This year he is paying them back. While Ichiro is busy putting his signature on American baseball, Rhodes is threatening to add his American name to Japanese sporting lore in his pursuit...
...quest for immortality, Rhodes just wants a fair shot. "Be aggressive," he advises opposing pitchers. "Try to get me out. But don't keep me from breaking the record a cheap way." For perspective, he adds: "Americans aren't going to stop pitching to Ichiro to keep him from breaking a record." Says Barry Bonds:"If there's not much time left, Rhodes can forget it. They're not going to pitch to him. I remember Tuffy, but I don't know much about him. I didn't know he was hitting a lot of home runs...
...basking in its pre-Olympic boom, I saw broken windows, shuttered stores and people walking lost and disenfranchised down streets without cars or telephones; in recessionary Japan, by contrast, most of the people I see seem to be well dressed, on their way to somewhere and exulting in Ichiro's success in America's big leagues...
...ICHIRO SUZUKI First ever rookie to top All-Star voting. Another steal for Japan's homegrown hero...