PEORIA, Ariz. — While explaining his feelings on everything from aging to his golf swing, Ichiro Suzuki looked toward Jack Cust’s locker Saturday afternoon and stopped his talk with reporters.
The robust Cust, sitting on a stool just a few feet away, had done his best to make like Ichir
o. Not with a bat, but with fashion.
Cust, the Mariners’ new designated hitter, had rolled up the legs of his jeans to expose his calves, the same way the slender Suzuki was wearing his jeans.
Suzuki said something in Japanese, and his interpreter, Antony Suzuki (no relation), turned to Cust and asked, “Is that intentional Jack?”
Cust got up, called him “bro” and gave him a fist bump before walking away — the jeans still rolled up high.
So, Ichiro, does Cust wear that look well?
“To break it down, I’m the good sample and he’s the bad sample,” he said.
Suzuki spent about 30 minutes with reporters after Saturday’s first full-squad workout of spring training — the first half with English-speaking media, the second half with Japanese — and covered topics ranging from his preparation as he ages to new manager Eric Wedge to hitting a golf ball.
A sampling:
n Does your preparation change as you get older (he’s 37)? “That changes every year. You feel different physically so you have to adapt to your body every year.”
n How do you determine what you change? “It’s hard to say because I don’t think just with my brain. My physical condition explains that and I have a sensor that will tell me when to change. You could operate just with your brain and say, ‘When I’m 20 I’ll do this and when I’m 25 I’ll do this.’ I don’t think that’s a good indicator because we all are different physically and mentally.”
n What was today like with so many new faces in camp? “Every first spring training day is always a good day. You meet your old teammates, you’ve got new faces. It’s a new start and you have a lot of hope.”
n What is your impression of Wedge and his message to the team today? “He’s got a strong heart. He’s not very emotional although he can get emotional, which is good. You can see that he’s not the kind of guy who will sway. He’s got his own strong feelings that he will come right after you, which is good. It’s what this team needs. My impressions were that he’s got such a strong base, it’s not just him talking with his emotions. He’s got a very big picture in his mind and he’s definitely a different type of manager than we’ve had in the past.”
n How different is Wedge as a manager than Don Wakamatsu? “He’s totally different from Wak. He expresses his feelings in a different way. But the thing they have in common is they have a very strong feeling toward the game and a good feel toward the game to stick with the basic fundamentals.”
n How do you put last season behind you? “I don’t remember too much of what happened last year. That’s how I operate.”
n What does this team need to do better, differently, than last year? “It’s hard to say at this point. We just started our first day as a team. We have a new team, it’s very different than last year. We have to find what we need to work on and take it from there.”
n In your 11th year in the majors, did you ever think you would be here this long? “It doesn’t feel like I’ve played too long yet. It feels like I’ve been myself. Maybe I can say I’ve come halfway there.”
n How is your golf game? “It sucks. It’s hard to hit a ball that’s still.”
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