Taming of a Superstar

This interesting little factoid was printed in an obscure, small, out of the way spot in today's (6/15) Nikkan Sports. It's odd that some of the best articles are just little, nameless ones that look more like filler than an article, and some of the worst are on the front page. But that 's beside the point, click "Read more..." to find out what the
point is.

Ichiro, Japan's best all around player and batsman, is "struggling" at the plate most against the last place Chiba Lotte Marines. I put "struggling" in quotes because he's still batting .317 against them! Only 5 batters in the Pacific League (Ichiro included) are hitting over .317! How that's "struggling," I don't know.

Hmm. Maybe if it were put into perspective as to how Ichiro is batting against the other teams, it'll come clear. Let's see:

.520 against Daiei
.455 against Seibu
.373 against the Hamsters
.361 against Kintetsu
.317 against Lotte

Perhaps that helps explain why Orix is 5 and 3 against Daiei and 5 and 6 against the Marines.

Also noted in that one little paragraph (which this article has already far surpassed in size), was mention that Ichiro has failed to hit over .300 against Lotte for the past two seasons as well, making them the toughest team for the six time batting champion.

1998: .286
1999: .258

Isn't it funny how a team that struggles against average players can get the better of a superstar?

[Updated layout format on Feb 14, 2005 9:36 PM JST]