Ichiro record getting little attention in the U.S.

ARLINGTON, Texas — About two dozen members of a youth league baseball from a nearby suburb stood in the pouring rain in the stands next to the visitors' dugout hoping for an autograph before Saturday's game.

Asked they'd ever heard of Mariners leadoff man Ichiro, they shouted "Yeah!" in unison. They repeated the "Yeah!" when asked whether they think he's a great player and once again when asked if they know he's trying to break a record.

But ask them to identify what that record is, and everyone stops cold.

"Two thousand hits!" one of them finally proclaimed, to a general nodding of heads.

Told that Ichiro had reached that milestone last week, another shouted out "Three thousand!" and then another, "Four thousand!" until one of the adults near the back of the mob actually gets it partly right.

To say Ichiro's pursuit of a record ninth consecutive 200-hit season has yet to capture the imagination of the American sporting public at large would be somewhat of an understatement. While the nation's baseball fans have been treated to nightly updates this week of Derek Jeter's quest to set the New York Yankees all-time hits record, a much older and arguably more difficult mark about to be bested by Ichiro gets little or no attention.

"I think there's a lot of different things to it," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, who'd watched Ichiro for years from opposing dugouts, said before Saturday's game. "I think the market, the spotlight that he [Jeter] is under, that has something to do with it."

Wakamatsu also suggested the fact Ichiro is a foreign-born player might have removed some of the interest level for people compared to a homegrown talent like Jeter, playing for the game's most recognizable team.

On Friday, former longtime USA Today baseball columnist Hal Bodley, now a senior writer with MLB.com wrote: "If Ichiro, 35, played most anywhere but Seattle, I'm certain he'd be in the news constantly. This may be unfair, but I believe many of his amazing feats since arriving from Japan in 2001 have almost gone unnoticed. Maybe not unnoticed, but certainly not given the importance they deserve."

Ichiro lined a double on the first pitch of Saturday night's game, then hit a solo home run off Texas Rangers starter Kevin Millwood his next at-bat to leave him two shy of a record ninth straight 200-hit season, breaking the mark he shares with Wee Willie Keeler.

Unlike the ho-hum response within the United States, Ichiro's every move is being scrutinized by a traveling Japanese media contingent bolstered by several dozen members as the record draws near. Keizo Konishi, a veteran Seattle-based correspondent for the Kyodo News wire service in Japan, who has covered Ichiro and the Mariners since 2001, said this record is bigger for his country than Ichiro setting the major-league record with 262 hits in 2004.

"The difference is how much time this record covers," he said. "The 262 was a one-season record. This is a lifetime record. It's the first time in history it's been done."

Konishi isn't reading too much into the low-key coverage of Ichiro's feat here.

"People in New York, they follow Jeter," Konishi said. "People in Texas, if Michael Young was going for the record, they'd follow him. People in Washington don't really care all that much about the Michigan-Ohio State game. People in Japan, they care about what Japanese players are doing."

Wakamatsu said Ichiro's work ethic might be the lasting legacy that he leaves to the game. He compared it to when Sammy Sosa began sprinting to his outfield position while the spotlight was on him during his celebrated home run chase with Mark McGwire in 1998.

"I thought that was the greatest thing he gave the game," Wakamatsu said.

And now, he added, Ichiro is doing much the same thing in setting an example of work ethic for younger players to follow.

"I don't know a lot of players that have dedicated their life to the game to the extent he has," Wakamatsu said. "The man has not taken a day off since the start of the season."

Notes

• Carlos Silva is expected to get in one more game today for Class AAA Tacoma in its playoff series with Sacramento. After that, the Mariners plan to bring Silva back up with the team Tuesday and use him in a bullpen role. Silva gave up a pair of runs over two innings of work for Tacoma on Friday.

• The rainy weather gave Wakamatsu a rare chance to see his son, Luke, play in a Class 5A high-school football game here on Saturday. The game was supposed to be Friday night, but was delayed by rain. The younger Wakamatsu, a junior, hauled in four receptions for 64 yards.

• Pitcher Sean White is said to be feeling better after having some medication injected into his ailing arm. The team is still uncertain whether White will make it back before season's end.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com