Ken Griffey Jr. recounts Ichiro’s ASG inside-the-park homer: ‘It ain’t my fault, coach’

Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t want to talk about the only inside-the-park home run in All-Star history.

“It ain’t my fault, coach,” Griffey said recently by phone.

“Go back and watch it,” he demanded.

Gladly.

The highlight of the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco is infinitely rewatchable, a confluence of unique talent, fateful coincidence and blind luck. At the plate was Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most electric and beloved players in baseball history. He hit the ball into right field, where Griffey – Ichiro’s longtime friend, eventual teammate, and fellow Seattle Mariners icon – happened to be playing in his last Midsummer Classic. The ball ricocheted at an unexpected angle, got away from Griffey, and left Ichiro free to run.

Inside-the-park home runs are almost always quirky. The first and only in All-Star history could have been hit by Vince Coleman or Brett Butler or Scott Podsednik or any other speedster who made an All-Star Game or two before descending into relative obscurity. But no, it was Ichiro, who might have hit his historic fly ball toward Shawn Green or Preston Wilson or Jason Bay or any other National League right fielder of the era with whom he would have shared little connection or history. Instead, it was Griffey who was left scrambling after the ball took an unusual carom off a bit of one-night-only signage at then-AT&T Park.

“There were signs there!” Griffey said. “There are no signs there normally.”

Now in its 95th year, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has had plenty of big moments. The ones we talk about with friends and rewatch on YouTube. Cal Ripken moving to shortstop and homering. Torii Hunter robbing Barry Bonds, then getting hauled off like a sack of potatoes. Pedro Martinez mowing through Hall of Famers like they were Little Leaguers.

And, of course, Ichiro lifting a fly ball to right-center field, then circling the bases as Griffey – then in his 13th and final All-Star appearance – chased it hopelessly into the outfield grass.

“I played in that stadium since the year it opened,” Griffey said. “The first thing you do as a new guy coming into a stadium is check the wall. Especially if it has something funky in it. Your outfield coach would hit balls up against that wall and just see, because you can’t really just throw a ball. And 98%, 99% of the balls hit there either die or go toward center.”

Of course, Ichiro had a tendency to do the impossible. By 2007, he was already an All-Star regular, having been invited to the Midsummer Classic in each of his first seven major-league seasons. (He went on to become an All-Star in the next three seasons as well.) He’d never been particularly great in the All-Star Game to that point, and he’d never hit an inside-the-park home run in the majors, but all of that changed on July 10, 2007.

Facing Padres starter Chris Young – pitching in his only All-Star Game – Ichiro came to the plate in the fifth inning with one out, Brian Roberts on first base and Derek Jeter on deck. The first pitch of the at-bat was lifted to the angled wall in right-center – a wall that seemed sure to send the ball ricocheting into center field. That’s the way Griffey played it, but the ball hit off the signage and rebounded into right, meaning Griffey had to retreat. All the while, Ichiro was sprinting.

“Coming around third, I was getting the wave,” Roberts said on a call Monday. “And I think that’s when I finally took a peek and saw the ball was not where I thought it would be. And at that point, you’re just hoping Ichi doesn’t catch you coming home. That was probably the first thought I had!”

Roberts was not the only one surprised by the outcome of that at-bat.

“So, a screwy carom, and Junior is caught off guard,” Tim McCarver said on the broadcast. “And that allowed Ichiro to round the bases. A rare, rare inside-the-park home run in an All-Star Game.”

“We’re checking how rare that is,” Joe Buck added.

It was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history.

“I thought it was going over the fence,” Ichiro said postgame. “When it didn’t, I was bummed out.”

Finishing 3 for 3 as All-Star Game MVP surely eased Ichiro’s disappointment. The rest of us got a highlight-reel reminder of the right fielder’s remarkable ability to hit and run, as well as a lesson in the unpredictability of baseball.

“A lot of angles on that wall,” said then-Phillies outfielder Aaron Rowand, who made the lone All-Star appearance of his career in 2007 before later playing four years for the Giants. “If you haven’t played there a lot, you can play it wrong. You have to be ready for the ball to bound in any direction.”

With Ichiro’s speed, Griffey – who had thrown out Alex Rodriguez at the plate an inning before – had no chance to get him at home. Ichiro scored without a play, sprinting into a dugout celebration of superstars and eventual Hall of Famers.

At one point, Manny Ramírez began to fan Ichiro with a towel while Ichiro sat on the bench and laughed.

“As soon as the ball bounced the other way, he could have walked home,” David Wright told the after the game.

Other players expressed similar in-the-moment awe. Even among the greatest players of the era, Ichiro was a singular talent, with a style all his own.

“The things he did, we had never really seen people do,” Roberts said. “He was a quirky guy, but he was so fun to be around, and honestly, one of the greatest teammates I ever had. But when it comes to something like that, it does seem very fitting. … To have that kind of moment fits him. Nobody was cooler than Ichiro.”

That 2007 All-Star Game was stacked with now-legends and could have been an ideal curtain call for Bonds, who was playing in his home ballpark, but Ichiro stole the show.

“It’s one that I’ll never forget,” Ichiro said at the time. “The past six years, I never had an All-Star that I really thought I gave it my all or was able to give it my all. So, I’m really happy. It was a fun All-Star Game.”

Later this month, Ichiro will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where his bronze likeness will join Griffey’s in the plaque gallery. Griffey and Ichiro first met in 1995 during Ichiro’s first tour of America, and they first played together in 1999 when Ichiro attended spring training (a year before his big-league debut). They were officially teammates in 2009 and 2010, Griffey’s last two seasons with the Mariners.

Despite their friendship, Griffey said Ichiro has never brought up that homer.

“He’s not that way,” Griffey said.