All-Star Ichiro Awsom as Usual!

And he was named the All-Star MVP. 3 for 3 with the aforementioned inside-the-park home run.

This was well beyond usual - it was a night to etch in one's baseball memory bank like the final game of the 1977 World Series where Reggie invoked the Gods. Not only did Ichiro give a batting clinic for the world to enjoy, he capped off a joyous day in which we learned he would stay in Seattle for 5 more years (at US$ 100 million!) with a display of why he is worth every penny. Whenever one gets down about the problems and greed of baseball these days, all you have to do is look at this incredibly gifted and consummate professional, and find the joy of the game all over again.

Banzai Ichiro!

Hold on. There hasn't been an official re-signing of Ichiro yet, so please don't jump the gun on that. I have no doubt that the management will work something out with him, especially now that Mike Hargrove has resigned and John MacLaren is at the helm of the Mariners, but it's not a done deal yet. The good news is that it sounds like he'll be sticking around one way or the other, though.

But yes, the inside-the-park home run was pretty exciting, and especially ironic to me that it was fielded by former Mariners icon Ken Griffey Jr. Even more amusing was that the announcers were pretty preoccupied with watching Eric Byrnes throw his dog into McCovey's Cove to fetch a baseball at the time. Fun stuff all around.

Ichiro Rocks!

Last night's All-Star game was all Ichiro. Ichiro is still the top five players in the world. Ichiro is a freak with the bat.

He will retire and enter the Hall of Fame as a Mariner.

Deanna's right! Don't celebrate the contract renewal just yet, it hasn't actually gone through. My friend congratulated me when the Red Sox were winning in the 8th over the Yanks in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, and that didn't turn out so hot. I'd love to see it go through, for the M's to continue the turnaround, and for Ichiro to continue his long and successful career there. He deserves it and so does that city (so don't jinx it!).

And, I've gotta agree with Chiroman - he is a freak with the bat. No one else in the the league, or maybe on the planet, has that kind of bat control. His second hit last night wasn't so much a swing, it was more like a tennis shot. I think he knew if he had really swung, he was going to fly out to left. So he got the fat part of the bat on the ball, and lobbed it into left. It was a tennis lob shot. Who else does that?

The contract, of course, was signed on Friday for about $90 million. The reason I felt secure mentioning it in my first post was that the sources were all very strong and public - all of the local Seattle TV news stations reported on Ichiro's verbal agreement, as did the Seattle Times on their website. So it was a safe call on that play.

- The contract, of course, was signed on Friday for about $90 million. [...] So it was a safe call on that play.

I don't know. Sounds to me like you cost him $10 million! I keeeed, I keeeed.

Great news for Seattle. Seems like quite a hometown discount. Wonder how much he would've fetched in the open market?