Drayer: The Ichiro I wish we could have gotten to know better

The bat game, the latte line incident, the correction of a reporter’s tic, a final “Sorry Shannon”—!

Covering Ichiro for 10 years has been interesting, to say the least. I have always said that you will see things in the Mariners clubhouse that wouldn’t be seen in any other clubhouse in baseball and that was due in large part to Ichiro.

He could be maddening with his unconventional play at times but above all he stayed true to himself and for that I have the utmost respect. When he came here to play baseball as the first Japanese position player, he had plenty of doubters. Many thought he would be nothing more than a fourth outfielder. He proved them wrong and he did it his way. He came here as himself and stayed himself. He didn’t try to turn himself into an American baseball player. He remained a Japanese baseball player playing the game in the United States. Not an easy thing to do.