Appreciating What They Have

Good article by John Levesque of the Seattle Post on the reason why Mariners fans should come out to baseball games even though their club is headed for another losing season. What is that reason you ask? Ichiro. Read the following:
"For even when Ichiro looks as if he has made a huge mistake, he has the intelligence, inventiveness and artistry to make certain failure look promising. Witness his approach as he tried to score from first base Sunday on a double to right by Randy Winn. Mariners third-base coach Jeff Newman waved Ichiro home, but the relay to Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli beat Ichiro by plenty and a half. On a conventional slide, Ichiro would have been more out than an eight-track tape player in a Pacer. So he cut short his slide, popped up a few feet from Mirabelli, vaulted over the catcher and touched the plate with his hand. A flailing Mirabelli tagged Ichiro with his glove, but the ball was in the catcher's other hand.

"Umpire Bill Miller was fooled, however. He called Ichiro out. Ichiro argued mildly, but graciously accepted the decision, knowing that what Miller had just seen isn't exactly everyday stuff in the umps' training films. Characteristically, Ichiro faulted no one, saying only that when he was waved around third it was his job to find a way to score. 'When I saw the catcher had the ball, I had zero chance of being safe,' he said. 'At that point you have to give yourself a chance. That's when I thought about what I could do.'"

Carl Crawford helps to make games interesting for the D-Rays in much the same way, but honestly their is no way I could compare Ichiro to Crawford. Here is the link to the Ichiro article (hat tip to the Sports Frog blog): http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/224606_leve17.html