By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Every time Ichiro Suzuki did something so amazing that he seemed to defy the limits of baseball, his Seattle Mariners teammates would watch in awe and hold up three fingers.
“We’d be in the dugout asking ourselves, ‘Just how does he do it?’ and then we’d give him the Wizard sign,” catcher Tom Lampkin said.
That three-finger salute – in the shape of a “W” that stands for Suzuki’s nickname: Wizard – would have been appropriate again on Tuesday.
The Mariners’ rookie pulled off yet another surprising achievement by winning the American League’s Most Valuable Player award, narrowly beating Oakland’s Jason Giambi and Seattle teammate Bret Boone for the honor.
Suzuki received 11 first-place votes and 289 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. In the 10th closest vote since the MVP was started in 1931, Giambi got eight first-place votes and 281 points, and Boone received seven firsts and 259 points. Two members of each American League city’s BBWAA chapter voted for the award.
All of the first-place votes for Suzuki came from outside Seattle. The two Seattle chapter members of the BBWAA who voted for MVP, Larry LaRue of the Tacoma News Tribune and Bob Sherwin of The Seattle Times, had identical ballots that listed Boone first, Suzuki second, Giambi third and Robbie Alomar of the Indians fourth.
Suzuki became only the second player in major league history to win both Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in the same year, duplicating the feat of Fred Lynn in 1975.
This one might be the greatest surprise in history, given Suzuki’s role as a leadoff hitter/base stealer/defensive specialist against home-run and RBI producers like Giambi and Boone.
“I didn’t expect that I would be the one to win with a very small margin,” Suzuki said. “I don’t know how much my defense and running influenced the ballot, but I cannot be a player without talking about defense. I cannot impress only with my hitting. Defense and running make myself a (complete) player.”
Suzuki led the major leagues with a .350 batting average and the AL with 56 stolen bases and 242 hits.
Now he has an award that players named Williams, DiMaggio, Gehrig and Mantle have won.
“To be among those great legendary players, I cannot be an ordinary player any more,” Suzuki said.
Lampkin says nobody can truly appreciate Suzuki’s accomplishment this year – playing in the States after nine years in Japan – unless they’ve tried to play at the major league level.
“I can’t imagine how tough it would be to go to another country and play major league baseball,” Lampkin said. “I don’t think anybody can understand how difficult the game is at this level unless you get up here and try to do it. That definitely makes what he’s done more significant. If you can lead a league in three or four categories, you’re definitely worthy of wining the MVP.”
Suzuki gives ample credit to the Mariners for making his transition from the Japan’s Pacific League so smooth.
“All of the players in the clubhouse had open arms and welcomed me,” he said. “They made me very comfortable, and during the season our relationship and friendship got stronger and stronger. That helped make my transition very easy.”
To his teammates, Suzuki was extraordinary from the moment he joined the Mariners. Lampkin said the players would sit in the dugout and marvel when Suzuki batted.
“There were so many times when the pitcher would get two strikes on him and then he’d get a hit,” Lampkin said. “He’d fall behind 0-2 and look really bad, and the guys in the dugout would be saying, ‘Well, he’s locked in now.’ “
As much joy as Suzuki gave his teammates, he often left opposing pitchers muttering in disgust.
“Pitchers are taught if you make good pitches, you’re going to get good results,” Lampkin said. “He’s a frustrating hitter because you can make really good pitches on him and you can’t get him out. He’s the type of guy you don’t like to face because he does it all the time.”
Lampkin remembers one at-bat, against a National League left-hander during an interleague game, when Suzuki left the pitcher screaming in disgust.
“He’s facing a guy who he’s never seen before, a tough left-hander, and the guy had him down 0-2,” Lampkin said. “Then Ichiro starts slapping foul balls over their dugout. When he starts slapping the ball over the third-base dugout, he’s getting locked in. Then he hit a little bleeder down the left-field line for a hit.
“The pitcher was just livid. He was stomping around going, ‘What have I got to do?’
“I just told him, ‘Hey buddy, don’t get ticked off at it, he’s been doing it all year.’ “
In the Mariners dugout, Suzuki’s teammates broke up in laughter.
“It was comedy,” Lampkin said. “He just did things that most people don’t do. All of us marveled at what he did and how he did it.”
On Tuesday, they were marveling again.
The “Wizard” won the MVP.
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