By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Just like last year, when he refused to make predictions that placed undue pressure on his prized rookie, Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella doesn’t expect even greater accomplishments next season from Ichiro Suzuki.
“I’d just like to see him do what he did this year and leave it at that,” Piniella said.
Uh, Lou, the guy batted .350 and stole 56 bases, numbers nobody in the American League matched. He handled American League pitchers like they were lobbing softballs to the plate and dared anyone to take an extra base against his strong arm from right field.
With another season like Suzuki had in 2001, the only thing he’s sure not to accomplish next year is the Rookie of the Year award.
That one-time-only honor came Monday.
Suzuki received 27 of the 28 first-place votes from members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Cleveland pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who won 17 games this year, finished a distant second in the voting and New York second baseman Alfonso Soriano was third.
Sabathia got the one first-place vote, from Chris Assenheimer of the Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria, Ohio, that prevented Suzuki from becoming a unanimous pick.
Suzuki, 28, became the second consecutive Japanese-born player to win the AL rookie award after Mariners relief pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki won it last year.
The last time an organization won consecutive rookie awards was 1988 when Walt Weiss of Oakland won after Mark McGwire in 1987 and Jose Canseco in 1986.
News of the award came as no surprise to Suzuki.
“I thought this was an award I should have won without any doubt,” he said through a translator during a conference call from a location he would identify only as being in the United States. “To be honest, I wanted to win this award unanimously. But all of the writers make their own judgments. It is nothing I can control.”
The only argument against Suzuki would have centered on his rookie status. He played nine years in Japan before the Mariners signed him but was considered a rookie here because it was his first season in the major leagues.
“I was a little embarrassed to be called a rookie here,” he said. “But I had not played in the United States, except the time I played winter ball in Hawaii. As a player on this team I was a rookie, but as a baseball player I was not a rookie.”
Suzuki, a seven-time batting champion with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, ended most of the suspense about the rookie award with a fast start to the season.
He batted .336 in April and .379 in May, dispelling some of Piniella’s fears that Suzuki, despite his vast experience in Japan, would need time to learn American League pitchers. He batted .429 in August and finished the season with 192 singles to set a league rookie record. Suzuki’s 242 hits broke Shoeless Joe Jackson’s 90-year-old AL rookie record.
“We knew he was going to have an impact for us,” Piniella said. “But to assume he was going to do as well as he did, nobody anticipated that.”
Suzuki not only had a rookie-of-the-year season, many consider him a strong contender for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. Mariners teammate Bret Boone and Oakland A’s slugger Jason Giambi also are favorites.
“I’m very pleased and honored that my name has been mentioned to be one of the candidates,” said Suzuki, who last week was named one of the three outfielders on the AL Gold Glove team.
The MVP award will be announced next Tuesday.
“He was the MVP of this team,” said Mariners teammate Mike Cameron. “If there wasn’t an Ichiro, I don’t know where we would have stood. It seemed like he scored two to three runs a game and took away two to three runs a game.”
Suzuki called it a season that gave him a great sense of fulfillment.
“In baseball, there is no such thing as being 100 percent satisfied,” he said. “But looking at how many times I had fulfillment or satisfaction, I have a good feeling about how I played this year.”
As for next year, Piniella gladly will take a repeat.
“The league knows him a little better, but he knows the pitching also,” Piniella said. “That’s basically a wash as far as I’m concerned. He just needs to maintain.”
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