Nichi-Bei and the Media - Part One: Bei
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Re: Nichi-Bei and the Media - Part One: Bei
[ Author: Guest: Gary Garland | Posted: May 20, 2002 6:33 PM
]
Actually, I think a lot of it is due to the fact that Ichiro's approach is unique and he has such tremendous hand eye coordination. The point you make, though, about Jeter is a valid one, though Jeter's way of doing things, again, is more conventional. Even during the heyday of Matty Alou and Rod Carew, two guys who were very good about keeping the ball on the ground, their intent was to at least give themselves a chance to beat it out rather than hitting the ball in the air, since neither had much pop. Ichiro actually directs the ball around the infield with the intent to beat it out whereas with Carew and Alou it was more of an accident (excepting when Carew bunted, and he was a master at it). Wade Boggs, same thing, though Boggs had
nowhere the speed of Carew. Thus, you couple that different approach with his charisma and the fact that
he is the first position player to come out of Japan,
a country that has always been seen as behind MLB in quality, and who then wins the MVP no less, that is going to be someone who attracts a lot of attention.
There is one other thing at work, I think. It's a marketing angle. Ichiro has meant big bucks to both the Mariners and MLB (since merchandising revenues are shared) and if you profile him as unstoppable or difficult to solve, you hype him and that maybe gets eyballs in front of ESPN and Fox when they broadcast M's games.
Now let me tell you what I REALLY object to: it's the "next Ichiro" thing. Pieces on Kazuhisa Ishii, for
crying out loud, are prefaced as "is he the next Ichiro?" Imagine the following equivalents of that:
Ramiro Mendoza: the next Rod Carew? (Both are from Panama).
Freddie Garcia: the next Andres Gallaraga? (Both are from Venezuela).
Ramon Ortiz: the next Vlad Guerrero? (both are Dominican).
Hee Seop Choi: the next Chan-ho Park? (Both are Korean).
Actually, think about that last one: have you heard of Sun-wu Kim being referred to as "the next Chan-ho Park?" No. Curious that one, don't you think?
That's why I wrote an article called, "There are No More Ichiros." Each player has to be taken on his own value rather than comparing him to someone else. I'm hoping that after the hype over Hideki Matsui fades this winter, when they will call him "the new Ichiro,"
that will mark a kind of apogee for that kind of simplistic thinking and we'll hear less and less of it.
In the back of my mind, though, and I get a real chuckle out of this one, is how many of the baseball media thought that Ichiro would be more Luis Polonia
than Rod Carew, except, unlike Polonia, Ichiro is a competent outfielder. Thus, I just wonder if they are
secretly hoping that Ichiro will be neutralized so they can do an "I told you so." Someone needs to ask Gammons and Dibble, among others, that.
nowhere the speed of Carew. Thus, you couple that different approach with his charisma and the fact that
he is the first position player to come out of Japan,
a country that has always been seen as behind MLB in quality, and who then wins the MVP no less, that is going to be someone who attracts a lot of attention.
There is one other thing at work, I think. It's a marketing angle. Ichiro has meant big bucks to both the Mariners and MLB (since merchandising revenues are shared) and if you profile him as unstoppable or difficult to solve, you hype him and that maybe gets eyballs in front of ESPN and Fox when they broadcast M's games.
Now let me tell you what I REALLY object to: it's the "next Ichiro" thing. Pieces on Kazuhisa Ishii, for
crying out loud, are prefaced as "is he the next Ichiro?" Imagine the following equivalents of that:
Ramiro Mendoza: the next Rod Carew? (Both are from Panama).
Freddie Garcia: the next Andres Gallaraga? (Both are from Venezuela).
Ramon Ortiz: the next Vlad Guerrero? (both are Dominican).
Hee Seop Choi: the next Chan-ho Park? (Both are Korean).
Actually, think about that last one: have you heard of Sun-wu Kim being referred to as "the next Chan-ho Park?" No. Curious that one, don't you think?
That's why I wrote an article called, "There are No More Ichiros." Each player has to be taken on his own value rather than comparing him to someone else. I'm hoping that after the hype over Hideki Matsui fades this winter, when they will call him "the new Ichiro,"
that will mark a kind of apogee for that kind of simplistic thinking and we'll hear less and less of it.
In the back of my mind, though, and I get a real chuckle out of this one, is how many of the baseball media thought that Ichiro would be more Luis Polonia
than Rod Carew, except, unlike Polonia, Ichiro is a competent outfielder. Thus, I just wonder if they are
secretly hoping that Ichiro will be neutralized so they can do an "I told you so." Someone needs to ask Gammons and Dibble, among others, that.
Re: Nichi-Bei and the Media - Part One: Bei
[ Author: CFiJ | Posted: May 22, 2002 8:30 AM
]
> Now let me tell you what I REALLY object to:
> to: it's the "next Ichiro" thing. Pieces on Kazuhisa
> Ishii, for
> crying out loud, are prefaced as "is he the next
> Ichiro?" Imagine the following equivalents of that:
>
> Ramiro Mendoza: the next Rod Carew? (Both are from
> Panama).
>
> Freddie Garcia: the next Andres Gallaraga? (Both are
> from Venezuela).
>
> Ramon Ortiz: the next Vlad Guerrero? (both are
> Dominican).
>
> Hee Seop Choi: the next Chan-ho Park? (Both are
> Korean).
>
> Actually, think about that last one: have you
> you heard of Sun-wu Kim being referred to as "the
> next Chan-ho Park?" No. Curious that one, don't you
> think?
> That's why I wrote an article called, "There are No
> More Ichiros." Each player has to be taken on his own
> value rather than comparing him to someone else. I'm
> hoping that after the hype over Hideki Matsui fades
> this winter, when they will call him "the new
> Ichiro,"
> that will mark a kind of apogee for that kind of
> simplistic thinking and we'll hear less and less of
> it.
This ties into another thing that I object to that I forgot to mention. I'm not sure if it's purely the Japanese media or purely the American media's fault. Maybe it's both. It's this tendency to compare a Japanese pitcher to top-level and very famous MLB players.
Case in point: it's popular to snicker and point to Irabu and bring up claims that he was supposed to be "the Japanese Nolan Ryan". And when Komiyama was signed by the Mets, it was said that he "pitches like Greg Maddux" (meaning, a finesse pitcher) but that of course got turned into "the Japanese Greg Maddux".
Who the hell is making these comparisons? Can't they look at a guy's stuff, look at his stats and just make a simplistic comparison from the two? I didn't really see that with Ishii, which makes me glad, but it bugs me that players get hyped like that, because it seems like a knock on them when they struggle, and sets them up for sarcastic comments (like this one) by the ironic baseball media. I would prefer that players were described by the kind of player they are, not by simplistic comparisons.
> to: it's the "next Ichiro" thing. Pieces on Kazuhisa
> Ishii, for
> crying out loud, are prefaced as "is he the next
> Ichiro?" Imagine the following equivalents of that:
>
> Ramiro Mendoza: the next Rod Carew? (Both are from
> Panama).
>
> Freddie Garcia: the next Andres Gallaraga? (Both are
> from Venezuela).
>
> Ramon Ortiz: the next Vlad Guerrero? (both are
> Dominican).
>
> Hee Seop Choi: the next Chan-ho Park? (Both are
> Korean).
>
> Actually, think about that last one: have you
> you heard of Sun-wu Kim being referred to as "the
> next Chan-ho Park?" No. Curious that one, don't you
> think?
> That's why I wrote an article called, "There are No
> More Ichiros." Each player has to be taken on his own
> value rather than comparing him to someone else. I'm
> hoping that after the hype over Hideki Matsui fades
> this winter, when they will call him "the new
> Ichiro,"
> that will mark a kind of apogee for that kind of
> simplistic thinking and we'll hear less and less of
> it.
This ties into another thing that I object to that I forgot to mention. I'm not sure if it's purely the Japanese media or purely the American media's fault. Maybe it's both. It's this tendency to compare a Japanese pitcher to top-level and very famous MLB players.
Case in point: it's popular to snicker and point to Irabu and bring up claims that he was supposed to be "the Japanese Nolan Ryan". And when Komiyama was signed by the Mets, it was said that he "pitches like Greg Maddux" (meaning, a finesse pitcher) but that of course got turned into "the Japanese Greg Maddux".
Who the hell is making these comparisons? Can't they look at a guy's stuff, look at his stats and just make a simplistic comparison from the two? I didn't really see that with Ishii, which makes me glad, but it bugs me that players get hyped like that, because it seems like a knock on them when they struggle, and sets them up for sarcastic comments (like this one) by the ironic baseball media. I would prefer that players were described by the kind of player they are, not by simplistic comparisons.
Re: Nichi-Bei and the Media - Part One: Bei
[ Author: Guest: Gary Garland | Posted: May 23, 2002 2:13 PM
]
So does he lump Edgardo Alfonso and Rey Ordonoez under "novelty import act," too since they are born elsewhere or is that a special kind of contempt reserved for Japanese players? What a freakin' moron!
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But while the ESPN segment was more welcome focus on one of my favorite players, the theme of the segment bothered me. Ever since he took off around this time last year, a continuing focus of the baseball media has been, "How can teams stop Ichiro?" "Will teams solve Ichiro?" "When will teams figure out Ichiro?" In particular, this term "solve", which I've seen in many magazines articles, irritates me. What bothers me is that this was never an issue with Albert Pujols, the other surprise rookie last year. There were never articles on "solving" Pujols. He was never referred to in that way. But with Ichiro, there was always this impression that is was all some kind of trick that could be figured out.
I suppose some of it comes from Nomo. When Nomo broke on the scene, it was never the fact that he had a good fastball and one of the best forkballs in the game, it was always about his funky delivery. And when Nomo struggled, the consensus was that hitters had "figured out" his funky delivery, and thus his effectiveness was cut down. Never mind that he had had surgery on his arm, or that his velocity was down. Hitters had finally "figured out" Nomo...
It continues with other Japanese pitchers. Some commentators have pointed out Ishii's "herky-jerky" delivery as a factor in his effectiveness. I have heard commentators refer to Sasaki as having a "hesitation delivery", despite the fact that he has the smoothest delivery of all the Japanese pitchers. I suspect that this "hesitation" merely comes from the standard 1-2-and-3 timing of Japanese pitchers, in contrast to the 1-2-3 timing of MLB pitchers.
Nevertheless, while I try to keep an open mind, I sometimes seriously feel there's a cultural bias when MLB or those close to it look at Japanese baseball and its players. I am amazed that even now there would be any suggestion of the idea that there is some magic way to pitch Ichiro that will make him less effective.
Also, how many times to you hear that Ichiro's style is to "slap" the ball to the opposite field? Derek Jeter hits predominantly to the opposite field, but when he does it it's "going the other way", "taking what the pitcher gives him". Despite the fact that Ichiro consistently turns on the inside pitch and pulls it to right field, the baseball media would have you believe that he tries to "slap" (not "hit", not "drive") everything to left field.
I invite you to go to ESPN.com's Ichiro page, and click on "Hit Chart". You'll see that Ichiro sprays the ball to all fields pretty consistently, and this is despite the fact that most teams pitched him with fast balls away. I can only imagine that they thought he wouldn't be able to catch up to them.
Now, that said, and partly because I criticized Rob Neyer in an earlier article, I'd like to include a link to this article. In it, Rob scoffs at the notion that there's a way to pitch Ichiro that will keep him from hitting over .320. The sabermetric school of baseball analysis is not without its own biases, but at least it doesn't have a cultural bias.
In a couple days, I would also like to look at (that is, complain) about misconceptions about MLB and foreign players in the Japanese media.