The two articles below are translations of the Kyodo News Service articles by Keizo Konishi that were published Nov. 9 and Nov. 10 in the Japan newspaper, Tokyo Shimbun. The translation was done by Asuka Brown, who lives in Seattle and works as a translator and for Jiji Press, a Japanese news service.

Nov. 9: ICHIRO TALKS ABOUT HIS FIFTH YEAR

Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners finished his fifth year in Major League Baseball. His accomplishment of at least 200 hits each of five consecutive years is a brilliant feat by only five players including Suzuki since 1900. Despite his achievement, the Mariners finished last, two years in a row, a time Ichiro endured some of his own difficulties. Although he played all 162 games and recorded a .300 batting average, he didn't play as well as expected, especially after his year of 262 hits. Ichiro looks back on 2005 season in Seattle late fall.

Concern about team's idleness

Q: Around this time of the year, you say you want to leave baseball behind for a while.

Ichiro: "I want to leave baseball behind, but this year I feel I shouldn't leave it. Maybe because I am tied to something, that's why I feel this way."

Q: What is that something?

Ichiro: "I'm worried about the team's future. But at the same time I know I can't do everything by myself. Daily, I think about that kind of thing."

Q: This is the first time to spend offseason having something like this on your mind. Does the cause exist in the team's future?

Ichiro: "I feel the current situation is very critical."

Q: What makes you feel that way?

Ichiro: "The last game of the season reflects the team situation clearly. I had always felt that the value of a player really depends on his spirit in the last game of the season, just as the player would approach the first game of the season. On that last day I couldn't find anybody warming up on the field, and nobody said anything about it. We lost that game without spirit. What's worse, 35,000 fans came to see it, spending their money."

Rookies indulged in card games

In the middle of the season, the motivation of the team was obviously decreasing. For example, without watching video tapes to analyze the opposite team, rookies, who didn't try to practice, played cards to kill time. No coaches or veteran players seemed bothered. The clubhouse was full of idle atmosphere, which [the author says] Ichiro detests.

High average lead error swings

Q: In April, your batting average was .356, which was the highest number in your career in MLB. Back then you said, "That's too high."

Ichiro: "Although I felt something was wrong, the number remained good. I held good numbers, so I was not able to sense a problem. April is the month in which I cannot regain the image or feeling of playing well following such long, offseason months. It is very difficult to find the real cause of my errors, and to see why I felt something wrong because of the long blank season, or because of problems in my own body mechanics."

Q: Every year your batting average decreased toward the beginning of the summer.

Ichiro: "During this period, I'd had a bad habit of trying to see the pitch too much, maybe more than needed. For example, I showed this by ending up swinging at a pitch I didn't want. After this happens, I tend to find out what kind of pitch the next one will be. This is the most dangerous sign for me. If this happens, the timing of everything such as raising my right foot falls behind, and things go wrong. In May and June, I got caught in this."

He didn't realize the problems until the game against the Marlins on June 7. He noticed it when he watched the video after the game. He usually doesn't depend on the images from the videos, but this time he was surprised at the "obvious late timing of raising his right foot.''

Q: On the other hand, you accumulated 15 HR and 12 3B, which was a career high. Did you change your batting style?

Ichiro: "In the middle of the season, basically when our team had given up, I was playing every day by thinking what things our fans enjoy most. Maybe this might have made my style look different. Basically my style hasn't changed at all."

Q: Is there another problem, other than off-timing?

Ichiro: "When I look back at this season, I can't notice anything on my techniques. That means I think there is no problem other than my timing."

Experienced the fear of collapsed batting form

His batting form, which proved to be effective last season, had not changed. He once thought his new batting form, the one he first discovered July of last year, was perfect. But he realized it collapses easily for small reasons. Wasn't it a season of learning the difficulty of baseball for Ichiro?

Nov. 10: 200 HITS WAS HIS MENTAL ENERGY

Q: The last year Mariners went to the playoffs was 2001. The year 2003 was the one when the team competed until the end for the postseason.

Ichiro: "It's been a long time since I've played in a game which excites me. It is a sad situation that I have had to create my own motivation from inside of myself for such a long time."

Q: Do you have a strong desire?

Ichiro: "Maybe that's why I felt I want to accomplish 200 hits this year, too. Without doing it, I felt like I might collapse. Maybe I felt it [200 hits] might have been the only way to pull myself together."

Uncomfortable with instruction to wait

One of the awkward feelings he had during the season came from the different viewpoint of manager Hargrove on baseball. In the game against the Twins on Aug. 8, he suddenly received a sign to not swing at the first pitch. It was the middle of the game, the pitcher, (Carlos) Silva, well-known as a controlled pitcher in MLB, was easily getting outs in early counts. The manager became frustrated with Silva's good performance and so the wait strategy was put into action.

Q: The wait strategy doesn't always bring good results, does it?

Ichiro: "It makes the pitcher throw more pitches, but after all I think we have to hit safely. Besides, if we refuse to hit the first pitch from a pitcher who throws strikes, we get cornered easily."

In the end, the wait strategy was done only for that game. Ichiro had a talk with the manager afterward. But the manager's thinking style had troubled his mind.

Ichiro: "It is very hard for me to know the manager seriously believes in his own way."

Candid advice for team

Q: During the season, you made some severe comments to some leaders and players, which you have never done before.

Ichiro: "I have been on this team the longest among the regular players, so I thought I had to speak my thoughts."

Q: During the era of Orix Blue Wave, your accumulated small efforts had been ignored. People just said you are different.

Ichiro: "Well, it is no doubt that the last two years in Japan and these past two years here are similar. It's interesting, depending on your way of thinking. Because everything started from the possibility of whether or not I could make it here when I came to the U.S. And after five years, I have come to the same feeling which I had at the very end of my era in Japan."

Q: You became 32 years old and next year is your 15th year as a professional baseball player. You will be soon called a veteran player.

Ichiro: "I want time to pass more quickly because one year seems so long. That may be a reflection of how I am struggling."

The first pitch batting average fell

His first-pitch, single-hit ratio is consistently high. From the 2001 season to the 2004 season, his first-pitch batting average was over .420 but this past season it had dropped to .200. And the number of at-bats in which he hit the first pitch decreased from 114 in 2004 to 65 this past season (2005). It may be a coincidence, but one order to wait at-bat took away his strength.

The Mariners added the National League HR king, (Adrian) Beltre and slugger (Richie) Sexson. But the team failed to win these past two years. Under manager Hargrove, the team couldn't make it to the playoffs.

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