Ichiro Mariners Hall of Fame Inductee Interview [Q&A]

Ichiro held a press conference the day after he was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ichiro attended a press conference for the first time in about three years since his retirement conference in Tokyo in 2019.

He answered a wide range of questions, from his thoughts on the team and the reason for his challenge to the major leagues to the cultural differences between Japan and the United States.

Words like Ichiro came out one after another.

"I couldn't have imagined myself being on this stage today."

A: Well, you never know what will happen if you live.

no one imagined.

I myself could not have imagined that I would be on this stage today.

Q: You played for a team other than the Mariners, why do you have a special feeling for this team?

A: I didn't come to Seattle as a free agent, and the Mariners won the right to negotiate with the posting system at the time, but there's an unexplainable connection.

Of course I wanted to play for the Mariners.

Even at that time, there was a special feeling, partly because I was familiar with the camp in 1999.

He gave me an opportunity, and I wanted to respond to it, and a relationship was built over time.

I think that's the relationship.

“The experience of playing in Japan for nine years was the biggest.”

Q: How confident were you when you challenged the major leagues?

A: I played in Japan for 9 years, 7 years being the first team, and I think that experience was the biggest.

That's why I didn't gain confidence after coming to America and the season started, but I had confidence since spring training.

Q: About joining the ranks of Mariners legends such as Griffey.

A: No, I can't believe it.

Today I met (Griffey) Jr. for the first time in a long time, and he still shines.

I feel like a star is a star.

I always think that when I see Junior.

I don't think it's the same stage as that, but I want to do my best to be able to help the Mariners with my own approach.

Q: Did you have time to think about your career?

A: I often talk about this when I'm facing a record, but anyway, I was thin since I was little.

It's not like the fact that I was never big as a baseball player got in the way of me.

When a third party sees it, it always says, "It's too thin to be possible."

When I was in elementary school, when I went to junior high school, when I went to high school, when I went to the pros, and when I went to the majors, I was always fighting against it, so I often remember that.

I have that story from when I was little.

However, I know the pleasure of silencing those voices with results.

That kind of feeling that the accumulation is what I am here now.

“I want to have a positive energy that is different from when I was a player.”

Q: Do you have a message for your fans?

A: I want to save that for tomorrow.

Q: Do you still want to play?

A: I get asked that a lot too.

But even at the Tokyo Dome, the fans let me know that there was no better way to end it.

I don't feel that way at all.

Of course, I still have that feeling in my body, but emotionally, there is no way I can surpass that in the end, so inside me.

In that sense, the way it ends is very important, and I often look back on it.

But I still have a lot of chances to fight the players in the cage and I'm enjoying it now.

Q: What does it mean to help the team after retirement?

A: I want to be able to respond when the players ask for something.

To do that, I have to keep doing what I'm doing now. think.

I think it's the same thing whether it's a major player or a high school student I'm in contact with in the off-season.

Also, as someone who is around the players who are competing, if I stop moving, I'm sure the overflowing energy that comes out of my body will disappear.

Athletes want to keep that energy, or rather, I want to have more positive energy than when I was an athlete.

I feel that way too.

Q: How prepared are you for your speech at the ceremony?

A: Preparing for baseball is easy.

It's not easy.

My stomach hurts beyond compare, when I think about it.

I might get a second stomach ulcer (laughs).

"There have been many times when my heart was about to break, but I'm glad I did my best."

Q: What aspects of Japanese culture would you like the United States to emulate, and conversely, what kind of American way of thinking would you like to bring back to Japan?

A: When Americans go out to eat and say goodbye to tomorrow, they say goodbye and never look back.

Not all Japanese say so, but many people see it off until the end.

until it's out of sight.

Then, one last time, turn around and bow.

I love that culture, and I think I should look back on it at least once.

I think so.

It's just that it's already a cultural difference, or it's because there's a difference in customs.

It's not good or bad, but I like it.

What do you want to bring back to Japan from American culture?

An atmosphere that seems to have a mentality that can live wherever you go.

You said atmosphere.

Suppose you play the last game of the season and end the season in the 162nd game.

There are many people who may never meet again.

We accept that, naturally.

I wondered if we could meet again somewhere, or if I wanted to see them again, but they don't seem to think like that.

If we meet again somewhere, we will be happy with each other, but we may not be able to meet at that moment for the rest of our lives, but we accept that that is what it means to live.

How do you feel?

copper?

I guess it's just my personal feeling.

I think it's strong.

I envy that mentality.

Q: Even though the team has been in bad shape for many years, what you do hasn't changed at all.

A: A very difficult question to answer.

There have been many times when my heart was about to break, as you know.

I think it was good to hang out there.

You can't lose to it.

I don't have the option of not facing it.

It was tough.

After all, I say that bad things are bad, because of my personality.

It's my personality that good things are good.

Of course there were various things within the team, at that time.

But when time passes, I don't want to regret thinking, "Oh, I lost there."

I was very lonely at that time, but I think it was good to face each other.

Q: What are your thoughts on the idea that players who perform well even when teams are in bad shape should play for good teams?

A: It would be more fun for the people watching, and I think there are many people who would like to see some changes.

Don't be swayed by it.

I think it's natural to do it in the current state, in a certain state according to the rules.

Q: What new discoveries have you made in the way you approach baseball in a different way from when you were active?

A: If you overdo it, your body will break down.

I couldn't do it when I was working.

I stopped just one step before I overdo it.

That's why I wasn't seriously injured, but now I can think, "What will happen if I take one more step?"

But this experience made me realize that if I did that, it would break.

It's hard.

If I do this as a player, I won't be able to play for another year.

So, when I was an active player, I had a sensor that told me that I had to quit now, and without it, I don't think I would be able to do it today.

Most of the active players also break it, so I hope they keep it.

Q: A fielder came to the major leagues after Ichiro-san.

A: Did you come so much?

I think it's too little.

Eventually, each team will have at least one fielder, and at that time, I thought that such a situation would be unthinkable 20 years later, but that is not the case at all.

So it doesn't feel that much different than it did back then.

It's too little.

Q: How can Japanese players become like Ichiro in the future?

A: The difficult part.

After all, there are times.

Now, for example, if a new player from Japan in 2022 feels the same way I felt in 2001, I don't think so.

It's hard for me to express myself honestly right now, so on the surface I don't know what the players are thinking, especially what their teammates are thinking.

I think there are cases where even if the relationship looks great, it's actually not.

Bad relationships looked bad in those days, and good ones looked good.

I think it's confusing these days.

This question seems to be unnecessary, so I would like to stop here.

The sensor that seems to say unnecessary things is working now.

The sensor is also important.

“My image was that if I went to America, I would be beaten up.”

Q: It has been 150 years since baseball came to Japan.

When did Ichiro first want to go to the major leagues?

A: This is an impure motive.

There is no mere admiration or anything like that.

1996, the year I became number one in Japan.

I was in a slump that year.

It was a slump, but for some reason I became the lead hitter and MVP, and it was kind of weird.

The slump made me think that this result was strange.

It was in that year that I experienced baseball for the first time in the United States and Japan, and for the first time I felt with my skin that “Oh, there are amazing players out there.”

When I went to America, I thought that I would not be able to achieve the same results as in Japan.

That's actually my first motivation.

It's funny, isn't it?

It's funny, isn't it a dream?

Q: And you said that you definitely want to go to America.

A: At that time, I had no desire to go there.

I had an image that if I went to America, I would be beaten in this state, so I wanted to jump there.

But the rules didn't allow it.

After all, it will be off in 2000, so four years later.

At that time, it was my 7th year as a regular member of the 1st Army, and I felt that I had run out of things to do.

So it's not like I'm longing for it.

Q: Do you want to go to America other than baseball?

A: Other than baseball?

Not at all.

Zero.

Q: Were you told you were heading this way?

A: Never been told.

I've never been told it's for America.

I think it's more common for people to express themselves as more Japanese than Japanese people living in Japan.

If I were the ground, the trees that would grow would probably be Aodamo.

Ash doesn't grow from me.

If it suits America, I think ash will probably grow out of me.