He’s the last remaining member here from the record-setting 2001 team, shouldn’t be more of a forceful leader in the clubhouse?

Arthur Rhodes must be wondering what team he put up that 1.72 ERA for in 2001.

So's your mom.

Is he more concerned about his stats than assimilating more into the clubhouse?

God forbid anybody should concentrate on playing baseball.

Excellence is a form of leadership all its own.


Oh, and Sherwin was an idiot when he wrote for the Seattle Times, and is still an idiot. He's written this column fifty times, each straining to make his case by bringing up some obscure and irrelevant anecdote ("One time, Ichiro didn't play with the clubhouse puppy. What kind of leader is that?")

I'm not sure if he is under the delusion that Ichiro pissed in his Wheaties, or if he has some misconstrued sense of "leadership" - in Seattle, that inevitably ends up with calls for some "fire" in the clubhouse, and the signing of Carl Everett, Jose Guillen, and other jerks.

If Bob Sherloser is reading this... find some new material, OK?

Trite sportswriting cliche #26: "writer" covers bad team, blames team's best player for team's failure. Nothing to see here, move along.

Wait, he is bashing Ichiro for not properly entertaining the kids at some school event? Great. I suppose if he showed up as a clown at the school, they'd be in first place.

Why does he still not do English interviews?

That's an argument we keep hearing on and on and on in Montreal about the NHL Canadien's Captain, Saku Koivu (a Finn) who can't speak French although is been in town for almost 15 years.

To me, this is really a lame argument. What the heck does it matter?

I like Bob's saying : "God forbid anybody should concentrate on playing baseball."

And btw, Bob, it should be "goût", and not "gout" :)

it should be "goût", and not "gout"

Mais bien sûr! But I can't figure out how to get the "û" into the handle line.

Maybe it's time for a handle change ...

But I can't figure out how to get the "û" into the handle line.

I thought so.

"God forbid anybody should concentrate on playing baseball."

I have no idea if Sherwin has repeated this criticism over and over, nor do I know how accurate his observations were, but it seems to me that if Ichiro is going to visit an elementary school as a member of the Mariners, it's really not asking too much for him to at least feign some interest in the kids/process.

nor do I know how accurate his observations were, but it seems to me that if Ichiro is going to visit an elementary school as a member of the Mariners, it's really not asking too much for him to at least feign some interest in the kids/process.

Do the fans not adore him? Maybe the fans have no problem with how he behaves with them?

Do the fans not adore him? Maybe the fans have no problem with how he behaves with them?

He's a superstar. Just his presence is going to excite elementary school students. That doesn't justify visible indifference, in my opinion.

He's a superstar. Just his presence is going to excite elementary school students. That doesn't justify visible indifference, in my opinion.

I'm referring to the fanbase as a whole, not just the kids. If the fanbase as whole adores him, but one sports writer has issues, why should his conduct be a problem?

I'm referring to the fanbase as a whole, not just the kids. If the fanbase as whole adores him, but one sports writer has issues, why should his conduct be a problem?

And I'm referring specifically to this instance. Is it unreasonable to expect Ichiro, in the middle of a team-sponsored visit to an elementary school, to at least feign interest in the process?

Wait, he is bashing Ichiro for not properly entertaining the kids at some school event?

Right -- a trite way to demonize a player is to illustate that he crushes the spirit of kids. After all, it's all about the kids.

And I'm referring specifically to this instance. Is it unreasonable to expect Ichiro, in the middle of a team-sponsored visit to an elementary school, to at least feign interest in the process?

How do you know his level of interest compared to the other Mariners at the event?

How do you know his level of interest compared to the other Mariners at the event?

I think it's measured by "Interest Level Over Bench", ILOB.

Ichiro : -4 ILOB
Bloomquist : +3 ILOB
Sexson : +34 ILOB

Is it unreasonable to expect Ichiro, in the middle of a team-sponsored visit to an elementary school, to at least feign interest in the process?

The problem that I have with this is that nobody had an issue with anything that Suzuki was doing until the team started struggling.

This is Suzuki's eighth season in MLB. He's been the same guy the whole time he's been in the U.S. All of a sudden, now that the Mariners are languishing in last place, he's a problem?

Is it unreasonable to expect Ichiro, in the middle of a team-sponsored visit to an elementary school, to at least feign interest in the process

Who is to say he didn't; other than the clown who wrote the article? The dude doesn't speak English very well, which makes it hard to express interest over a bunch of elementary school kids. Plus, his personal experience with elementary school was almost certainly much different than the school he visited.

Even if he did act detatched, who cares? The kids certainly didn't go home crushed. In fact, they probably weren't even less than ecstatic.

Has this article been FJMed yet? It certainly deserves it :P

I came into the thread to basically slam the article, but I will say that if I was a kid in that class and my hero or whatever was there, but didn't speak, I would have been plenty disappointed.

Of course, growing up, my hero was Eddie Olczyk.

Who is to say he didn't; other than the clown who wrote the article? The dude doesn't speak English very well, which makes it hard to express interest over a bunch of elementary school kids. Plus, his personal experience with elementary school was almost certainly much different than the school he visited.

I already stated that I don't know for a fact if this guy's observations were accurate. I'm just saying that if they were, then it's a legitimate complaint. Go there in your jersey (as the team apparently asked), smile occasionally, say a few words to the kids. Good Christ, is that really too f###ing difficult?

This just in: star athlete is aloof.

As nice as it would be for the kids to be treated to a fabulous snapshot of their super-best-favorite being the best of all possible human beings, perhaps it is refreshing and even necessary for them to be exposed to the fact that this fellow, as spectacular an athlete as he may be, is as human and even disappointing as the rest of us fleshsacks?

I'm a huge Ichiro fan, by the by. If he were hitting .330 no one would care. I guess that goes without saying.

Do U.S. players in Japan do Japanese interviews and participate in community events? Do Japanese teams even have community events? Tuffy Rhodes has been playing in Japan since 1996. Does he do these things? I guess these are better questions for eastwindupchronicle.

And btw, Bob, it should be "goût", and not "gout" :)

Right. Otherwise "Goût d'Orval" sounds like painful medical condition.

Eddie O?

He's got nothing on MY childhood hero..the VALK!

Edit: I guess that was more early teenage hero...Peter Zezel is more my boyhood hero

He’s the last remaining member here from the record-setting 2001 team, shouldn’t be more of a forceful leader in the clubhouse?

Arthur Rhodes must be wondering what team he put up that 1.72 ERA for in 2001.

I don't think I'd call Rhodes a "remaining" member, especially in the context of clubhouse leadership.

That's an argument we keep hearing on and on and on in Montreal about the NHL Canadien's Captain, Saku Koivu (a Finn) who can't speak French although is been in town for almost 15 years.

Koivu is still probably trying to learn Finnish, much less French. I tried learning some Finnish when I worked for Nokia and spent several weeks in Finland. Take everything you know about the common European languages, shift 180 degrees, and that's Finnish. Kyllä tai ei?

Finnish and Magyar (Hungarian) are related to each other and not related to the other Indo-European languages. Not surprising that it seems upside down from other European languages.

Our headmaster in high school was Hungarian and spoke exactly like Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. As he said as he spied the big pot of our poker game when he caught us in a back room of the gym, "Waaalll, I zheee weee have a do-naaation for theee meeeshuns". Translated, "Well, I see we have a donation for the missions." Just the late Billy Wilson and me left in a $7 pot. Darn. That was big money back in my day, probably about 5 hours of work worth.

I'll give Father Senye his props, that was a pretty funny line considering he was pretty much a hardass principal.

Berg-Zezel-Osborne, still my favourite Leafs line ever.

Do U.S. players in Japan do Japanese interviews and participate in community events? Do Japanese teams even have community events? Tuffy Rhodes has been playing in Japan since 1996. Does he do these things? I guess these are better questions for eastwindupchronicle.

Bad example--Tuffy Rhodes actually does do all those things, he's probably the most "assimilated" of all the American players. But for the most part I think you're right.

That's an argument we keep hearing on and on and on in Montreal about the NHL Canadien's Captain, Saku Koivu (a Finn) who can't speak French although is been in town for almost 15 years.

To me, this is really a lame argument. What the heck does it matter?

Vlad got a lot of heat for not interviewing in French or English, also.

Finnish and Magyar (Hungarian) are related to each other and not related to the other Indo-European languages. Not surprising that it seems upside down from other European languages.

My mother has said of all the languages she has learned (or tried) Hungarian was far-and-away the hardest. How the hell are Finnish and Hungarian related to each other but nothing else? What sense does that make?

Who is to say he didn't; other than the clown who wrote the article?

Joke's on you--Sherwin attends that school, so he can speak as to whether the elementary students' spirits were crushed.

Isn't this just another version of the "Athlete won't make my job easy-->bad person" article?

I've done various magazine articles, newspaper reports and books about him for the Japanese market. They are fervent readers, especially anything about Ichiro, and I've enjoyed the experience of providing my perspective.

I assume he writes in English, and his work is translated into Japanese(?). Then it seems to me the reaction of the "Japanese market" would depend greatly on the translation. You wonder how these subjective judgements ("Is it a cultural thing or something less complimentary, such as arrogance?") sound in translation.

How the hell are Finnish and Hungarian related to each other but nothing else? What sense does that make?

They are both Uralic languages, and they have other cousins among the languages of Eastern Europe, notably Estonian. There's nothing particularly odd about that except that nearly every other language of Europe, as Edmundo points out, belongs to the Indo-European family (the other well-known exception is Basque, which really is related to no other known language). The Magyars came from the east, where they no doubt had some Uralic cousins, over a thousand years ago, and took over some relatively unused real estate on the Hungarian plain. Slavs, Germans, and Romanians (all Indo-European speakers) settled all around them and left them isolated. I am not sure how the Finns and Estonians got into their isolated places, but it was no doubt a similar migration.

How the hell are Finnish and Hungarian related to each other but nothing else? What sense does that make?
According to wikipedia, they are 2 of the Uralic languages, which started around the Ural Mountains.
Basically the early Hungarians hung out in the steppes and Urals, eventually getting their butts kicked westward til they found a safe place in the Carpathian Basin in 896. As I read it, the language was established enough to retain its Uralic nature, although many words from other languages were added to the vocabulary.
Pretty fascinating reading really.

EDIT: Or pretty much what BDR says.

I don't believe this was sent to BBTF, but last week the AP published a sports-news story on the school visit in question. Take it for what it's worth, but Sherwin was probably riffing off of it:

Mariners go to school