Ichiro's amazing catch lands among M's best

Like beauty, great outfield plays may be in the eye of the beholder.

Ichiro yesterday heard Mariners manager Mike Hargrove talking in the dugout about his play Monday.

"Routine," Ichiro said.

He was kidding, of course. The acrobatic catch, in which the right fielder jumped and hung near the top of the wall before twisting back for the ball, was one of the most memorable plays in Mariners history.

The play has been compared to one by Masafumi Yamamori of the Hankyu Braves in the early 1980s. Yamamori jumped atop a fence and balanced there for a second before catching the ball. The highlight used to be shown over and over to roars at the Kingdome, and was shown Monday on the Safeco Field big screen in tandem with a replay of Ichiro's catch.

Mariners Jeff Nelson, Dan Wilson and Aaron Sele and team trainer Rick Griffin came up with some other memorable catches by Mariners outfielders.

Center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. had three on the list: his run-and-robbery catch over the wall at Yankee Stadium in 1990, his cat-on-a-curtain catch at the Kingdome in 1995 and his hit-the-wall grab at old Tiger Stadium in 1997.

Right fielder Jay Buhner makes the list with his catch at Fenway Park in 1997, on which he ended up in the bullpen.

Don't forget Mike Cameron's run-and-rob on Derek Jeter at Safeco in April 2000.

And there was Stan Javier's knock-down, fall-down catch two months later.

"Anything near [or] at a wall is a greater catch, because of the risk involved," Griffin said.

Nelson said any play in the Kingdome was more impressive.

"That wall was so much higher, so much harder," the trainer said. "Ask Junior."

The former Mariner broke his wrist making the play in 1995.

Randy Winn pointed out what separated Ichiro's play from the others.

"Not only the play, but the catch," he said. "He not only had to get up, then hang there, but he had to react to the ball because it wasn't where he expected. That's what made that so amazing. It was a great play."

Hargrove said the best he has seen was by the Angels' Jim Edmonds in Kansas City in 1997. Running with his back to the plate, he made a full-length dive straight into the wall to catch a ball hit by the Royals' David Howard.

"But Ichiro's play here is pushing that, in my mind," Hargrove said.

Ichiro's play is getting lots of air time in Japan, but so far no call from Yamamori. They were teammates in Japan's Pacific League after Hankyu merged with Ichiro's Orix Blue Wave in 1999.

Ichiro said he learned "a lot about defense" from Yamamori and used to practice that play in spring training.

Practice, it turns out, makes perfect.