Link to star

With every autograph scribbled, picture taken or personal item tossed into the crowd, a lifelong memory is formed by a fan. It could be a rock star who flips his guitar pick into a pack of screaming girls. It might be a movie star who stops to pose for a photo.

For Adam Jackson of Spokane, it was an athlete who was an unknown Japanese baseball player at the time. More than 10 years later, Jackson still holds onto the bat Ichiro Suzuki used in his last minor league game.

The story began in 1991, when the Jackson family was on vacation in Maui, Hawaii.

Eleven-year-old Jackson and his dad, Dave, went to a Hawaiian Winter League game between the Maui Stingrays and the visiting Hilo Stars.

Dave, an educator at Lewis and Clark High School, has always been a big sports fan. His young son followed with the same passion.

“My dad told me to watch this one player who was a great hitter,” said Jackson, a 2002 Ferris High graduate and now a junior at Whitworth College. “He was an unassuming player who was a great hitter.

“He also told me he could win the league batting title the next night.”

The player was a 120-pound outfielder. He was 18 but looked much younger.

At the time, Suzuki played in left field rather than right field, where he has settled into in the majors.

“We came back the next night to see him play,” Adam said.

And then it happened: Eye contact between the athlete and the starry-eyed fan.

“He gave us a wave. It was my first interaction with a quote-unquote professional athlete,” Adam recalled.

That night, Suzuki claimed the league batting title with a .366 average. After the game, the players and fans milled around the field, not uncommon in the casual culture of low-level ball.

That’s when Suzuki gave Adam an autograph and his bat. He signed his name on Dave’s scorecard “I. Suzuki.”

After all, it was before he became just “Ichiro.”

“He didn’t speak any English, and I was eyeing his bat and he handed it to me,” Adam said. “We figured it was the last bat he used in the minor leagues.”

Nine years in Japan’s Pacific League followed. Suzuki became a star, winning seven straight batting titles with the Orix Blue Wave.

Still, he was unknown to most Americans baseball fans until his first year with Seattle in 2001. Suzuki gained instant stardom with the fans as he went on to win the America League Most Valuable Player and American League Rookie of the Year awards.

This season, despite the Mariners’ disappointments, Suzuki broke the single-season hit record of 258. It was a record that had stood for 84 years.

Adam, a 21-year-old biology major, has always kept a close watch on Suzuki. His wooden bat is tucked away at his parents’ South Hill home in his dad’s “baseball shrine” room.

Adam and his dad have been to several Mariners’ game over the years, yet Adam hasn’t felt the urge to wait for Ichiro with his minor league bat and Magic Marker in hand.

He also said his Suzuki bat is not for sale, despite the high price memorabilia is going for these days.

“It has too much sentimental value. It’s cool to know we own something of that magnitude,” Adam said.

“But if someone is willing to fork over $10,000 or $15,000, maybe. I don’t know.”