Ichiro”s superior feat never captured nation

The question came up – again – last week when the commissioner came to Seattle and honored baseball’s best little slap-it-and-run hitter.

Is Ichiro Suzuki underappreciated nationally? Did his incredible 262-hit season, when he broke an 84-year-old record, draw less coverage than it deserved from the national media?

“It depends on what market one plays in,” said commissioner Bud Selig, who gave Suzuki his Historic Achievement Award on Friday. “I never thought Hank Aaron got the attention he deserved until he broke Babe Ruth’s (home run) record, but he played in Milwaukee and Atlanta. I suppose there is some of that (with Suzuki), but there is so much national TV now and in the end, I think Ichiro got the credit.”

Sure, Suzuki’s run to the record was chronicled by the cable sports networks, but the coverage wasn’t overwhelming.

You can be sure Suzuki would have received more newspaper space and TV airtime on the East Coast had he been playing for the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. But maybe that would have been overcoverage.

As impressive as Suzuki was last year – what he accomplished is phenomenal in this age of specialized pitching – it’s not the sexiest record in the world. After all, how many casual fans had ever heard of George Sisler before Suzuki made a run at his 1920 record?

He did it by slapping balls and running to first base, not with monster home runs.

Willie Wilson, who played for the Kansas City Royals in the 1980s, was the same kind of hitter. In 1980, he joined Pete Rose as the only other player in baseball history to get 100 hits from each side of the plate. In 1982, Wilson won the American League batting title.

I don’t recall him appearing on the “Today Show.”

If Suzuki had made a run at the home run record, the 56-game hitting streak or a .400 batting average, he’d have been overrun with media exposure. Tony Gwynn or George Brett certainly weren’t ignored when they came close to hitting .400, even though they played for small-market teams (San Diego and Kansas City).

“I’m not sure his greatness is fully appreciated all over,” Selig said of Suzuki. “He is an extraordinary player. I mean, breaking George Sisler’s record. A lot of guys have played and not many have come close.”

The coverage given Suzuki wasn’t a matter of small market-big market. It was based on what’s a big deal to fans. As fun as it was to watch in Seattle, singles don’t sell like home runs.

The changing zone

It’s anybody’s guess, especially the Mariners’ pitchers, where the strike zone is headed this season. Depending on the umpire, sometimes the high strike has been called, sometimes the low.

“My first two starts, they called the low strike,” Ryan Franklin said. “They were calling it right in the hollow below the knee, where it’s supposed to be. But lately that pitch hasn’t been there.”

QuesTec or not, all the pitchers ask for is consistency. They need to know the limit of the strike zone, whether it’s from the knees to the bellybutton or the thighs to the armpits.

So far this season, they’ve dealt with both.

And finally …

Few moments this season have been as precious as Friday’s pregame ceremony for Suzuki, when he thanked his teammates, fans and Selig for the Historic Achievement Award.

It was the first time Suzuki has spoken English in public. Yes, he stumbled once or twice in his paragraph, but Suzuki was eloquent nonetheless.

It was a big step for Suzuki, whose English has improved steadily since he came to the Mariners from Japan in 2000, although he continues to answer reporters’ questions with the help of a Japanese interpreter.

Imagine being in a foreign country, standing in front of 43,000 people, trying to speak their language. Suzuki had to be nervous.

“Ichiro? He’s never nervous,” pitcher Ryan Franklin said.

“Yes, I was very nervous,” Suzuki said Saturday. In English.