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Ichiro has been the most pleasant surprise of the 2001 baseball season — bar none. There were plenty of concerns in spring training that perhaps the Seattle Mariners had overestimated what the Japanese star could do for their team, especially as Ichiro spent the first few weeks slapping balls to the opposite field like a glorified Timo Perez.

Two months later, Ichiro appears to be worth every penny. Few have found any way to be critical of him thus far, and those who have seem to use the most tortured of logic to do so.

Rob Dibble, the former Cincinnati Reds reliever, ripped Ichiro on ESPN.com last week, claiming that he doesn’t walk enough and that he’s just a “singles hitter who has 83 hits and under .400 OBP” who needs to learn how to take a walk.

“I personally want my leadoff hitter to walk 100 times and score 100 runs,” Dibble righteously intoned.

Understand something – I come from a Strat-O-Matic baseball background, and fellow Strat players will agree with a lot of what I’m saying. For me, the first thing I want in a player, especially a leadoff hitter, is someone who gets on base — and I don’t care how he chooses to do it.

Ichiro currently has a .397 on-base percentage, good for 13th in the American League as of June 5. However, it’s not as though the guys ahead of him are leadoff hitters as well — virtually all of them are middle-of-the-order guys who lack Ichiro’s speed and batting average.

Yes, he only has 10 walks so far, so guys like Dibble try to say he’s not walking enough. But since when is a single not more valuable than a walk? Should Ichiro, say, try to knock 50 points off his average and bat .315 instead, while waiting out a walk so he can fit the mold of a “true” leadoff hitter? Read the rest of this entry »

     The lament, reputed to have been delivered by a small boy to the legendary fielder and hitter Shoeless Joe Jackson outside a New York courtroom, was back in circulation this week as the world of professional baseball confronted its latest demon: the use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs.

     On Wednesday, an investigative committee of Congress issued subpoenas to seven active and retired major league players, among them some of the sports biggest names, as well as four baseball officials, to testify before the house committee on government reform on the use of steroids.

     Yesterday, players and team owners delivered their preliminary response: No.

     Stanley Brand, a lawyer for the baseball commissioner’s office, said the players would contest the subpoenas. He went on to accuse Congress of using concerns about drug use to try to win points with the public at the sport’s expense. He also warned that the hearings could compromise a grand jury investigation now under way in California into steroid use. “The legal audacity of subpoenaing someone who’s been a grand jury witness before there has been a trial in the case in California is just an absolutely excessive and unprecedented misuse of congressional power,” Mr Brand told reporters.

     The showdown now sets the stage for a fullscale confrontation between US lawmakers and baseball authorities. In a hard-hitting response to Mr Brand, the committee leaders, Republican congressman Tom Davis, and Democratic congressman Henry Waxman, indicated they were determined to have the players testify. If players defy the subpoenas, the committee could vote them in contempt, an action that could potentially result in jail time. Read the rest of this entry »