Quote from Seattle times.
Lost in translation: Ichiro's season of discontent
By Bob Finnigan
Seattle Times staff reporter
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LINDA KAYE / AP
Ichiro beats a throw to third in a game against Texas in September. Ichiro had several meetings during the season with manager Mike Hargrove. "When veterans come in to speak, a manager listens," Hargrove said.
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New translation of original articles from Kyodo News Service
Translation of Ichiro interview in "Number" magazine
At his core, surrounded by the talent and showmanship he exhibits on the ballfield, Ichiro has always had an air of mystery.
Thus, it was no surprise to hear that he had spent time during his recent visit home to Japan filming a dramatic appearance for an episode of "Furuhata Ninzaburo," a popular TV detective show, that will air in Japan in early January.
But rather than any kind of heroic role, Ichiro plays a baddie, a murderer trying to pull off the perfect crime.
Once again, Ichiro, whose persona here seems ever focused and a bit guarded, shows a different, more open side in his native Japan, where he lets out a bit more of his personality.
He spoke of some of his feelings about the Mariners and their past season in interviews after the season. He agonized over losing 90-plus games in 2005, for a second consecutive season.
And he said so in the following days in a one-on-one interview with Keizo Konishi, who wrote about it for Kyodo News Service, and also to a reporter from Number, a Tokyo sports magazine, speaking more pointedly and with some frankness about the miasma around the Seattle club.
But Konishi maintains that Ichiro did not say some of the things attributed to him in a Nov. 16 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which had Konishi's piece translated.
Translating from Japanese into English is difficult and imperfect. The Post-Intelligencer obtained three translations, according to sports editor Ron Matthews, who said one did not agree with the other two. Matthews acknowledges that Konishi had several exchanges with his reporter over the translation's accuracy, but that Konishi never asked the editor for a correction after the story's publication, nor did Ichiro or his agent.
The Seattle Times also obtained translations of the two articles (they are posted online at www.seattletimes.com/sports). In reading those and talking to Konishi, the biggest misunderstanding seems to be about card playing in the clubhouse. The P-I reported Ichiro was upset to see teammates playing cards in the clubhouse, and was disappointed that coaches allowed it. Konishi says he never asked Ichiro about card playing and that the conclusion in the article was only Konishi's opinion.
Ichiro also never said there was a lack of leadership in the clubhouse, contrary to what was reported in the P-I translation.
He did meet several times during the season with manager Mike Hargrove, but it did not appear to be different from any other any veteran player talking to the manager about disparate ideas about the game.
Fallout from the story included reports the Mariners might trade their five-time All-Star outfielder.
While general manager Bill Bavasi refused comment, as is his policy on personnel matters, Hargrove did speak about the issue, because one report in Newsday said that the manager tried to have Ichiro traded, and the player in turn tried to have Hargrove fired.
Said Hargrove: "Did we have some differences over strategy? Yes. Did we talk a number of times? Yes. That stuff happens all the time between a manager and his veteran players. But to make this out to be any kind of battle or chasm or rift, between Ichiro and me or between Ichiro and his teammates, is just not so."
Ichiro declined an interview request through his agent.
"Ichiro isn't going to comment," said Tony Attanasio, his agent. "Too much has been said already, and some of it was taken way out of context.
"Ichiro knows what was said to Japanese reporters and how it came out differently here and how those things happen."
Attanasio revealed that after the season Ichiro met with virtually every senior baseball official in the Mariners organization, including Hargrove, to talk over his concerns about the past two seasons and the future.
Attanasio summed up the conferences, saying: "In my 34 years as an agent, I have never heard of a player meeting with CEOs, team presidents, GMs, managers and others, 100 percent of the top people in an organization, and having such an open exchange with them as Ichiro did."
Later, in Japan, Ichiro met with Hiroshi Yamauchi, the founder of the modern-day Nintendo, which is the majority owner of the Mariners.
"Mr. Yamauchi takes great pride in the success of Japanese players in the U.S., particularly [Ichiro]," Attanasio said. "His players are required to pay him a call in the offseason. But this meeting turned out to be something special. It lasted several hours, something that would be rare in this country between a player and owner, and is unheard of in Japan."
The result of talking things out with all the Mariners' main men, Attanasio said, is that "Ichiro has a 100 percent positive attitude about the team and the future. All positive. He is already into his routine, put on 10 to 12 pounds, building himself up for 2006."
But what of relations between Ichiro and his teammates, which could be a worry in light of him voicing his feelings?
In translations obtained by the Times of the outfielder's postseason interview, Ichiro did say he felt the team did not show proper preparation for the last game of the season.
The following excerpt is from one translation of Konishi's interview with Ichiro:
Konishi: Around this time of the year, you say you want to leave baseball behind for a while.
Ichiro: I want to leave baseball behind, but this year I feel I shouldn't leave it. Maybe because I am tied to something, that's why I feel this way.
Konishi: What is that something?
Ichiro: I'm worried about the team's future. But at the same time I know I can't do everything by myself. Daily, I think about that kind of thing.
Konishi: This is the first time to spend the offseason having something like this on your mind?
Ichiro: I feel the current situation is very critical.
Konishi: What makes you feel that way?
Ichiro: The last game of the season reflects the team situation clearly. I had always felt that the value of a player really depends on his spirit in the last game of the season, just as the player would approach the first game of the season. On that last day I couldn't find anybody warming up on the field, and nobody said anything about it. We lost that game without spirit. What's worse, 35,000 fans came to see it, spending their money.
It is critical to note that in addition to differences between approaches to playing baseball in Japan and the U.S., there are also significant cultural differences. For one, games in Japan are regarded as entertainment, with individual performances received as highly as outcomes.
One of the most notable differences is attempting a direct translation of Japanese into English, and nuance and subtlety can be lost in translation. "You can't translate Japanese into English and be totally correct," Konishi says.
Another point to consider is that Ichiro is more intense in his approach to the game than even most Japanese players.
"Ichiro? Intense?" said Mariners scout Ted Heid, a man who knows the player well, and also knows Japanese baseball. "He's the most intense player since Pete Rose or Ty Cobb."
As such, Ichiro has been said to bring a Samurai spirit to his play, imbuing it with a dedication and focus virtually unreachable by most American-bred players.
An extension of that is that every day, Ichiro repeats rituals that seem to foster being grounded and humble, such as cleaning his own equipment, fielder's mitt, shoes, etc. He prepares for a game in this manner as well, with extensive stretching and unique individual exercising. In addition, he gets a workout and rubdown with one of the trainers.
Meantime, his American teammates go about their business as players in any clubhouse do. Most days they are at the park early, especially on the road, many taking early hitting on the field. Many watch game tapes of their hitting or pitching, but some wile away as many as three hours before pregame hitting by watching television, doing crosswords and playing video games. And yes, a few play cards.
Jim Colborn, a former Seattle scout who pitched here and coached pitchers for the Orix Blue Wave, said Japanese clubhouses "are far different from American clubhouses."
"Japanese players don't play cards, the clubhouses aren't set up to do group activities like you see here with tables and sofas," Colborn said. "When they finish taking batting practice, they go into an eating room and share a meal. Otherwise, they do personal stuff, talk a little.
"Seeing how American players spend time in clubhouses before games can be a shock to Japanese players."
Indeed, more than anything in Konishi's interview, Ichiro dissects his 2005 performances and his struggles to excel, against the backdrop of a losing season.
"The Japanese culture has a different way of dedicating self to a task," Colborn said. "There's a little more total spirit. In America you have your workaholics, but that approach is more common in Japan. And Ichiro takes it farther than anyone."
According to The Times' translation, in the interview, Konishi brings up the events of Aug. 8, in which Hargrove tried to change the flow of a tough game against Minnesota's Carlos Silva with a general direction to take the first pitch of each at-bat.
The P-I article stated that Ichiro did not adhere to Hargrove's request. The play-by-play of the game showed that Ichiro swung at the first pitch in the third and fifth innings (he flied out both times), but took the first pitch in the first (eventually fouling out) and eighth innings (where he had a single to left-center).
The Times' translation says Hargrove made his request while Ichiro was changing his undershirt so that he did not hear it, then was "reprimanded" by Hargrove for not taking the first pitch, ostensibly after the fifth inning.
But Hargrove said his order was not directed to Ichiro.
"To make a deal out of that game is incorrect," Hargrove said. "Ichiro did take first pitches in that game. He went along with what everyone did."
The two met after the game and Hargrove said, "I told him what I said was not for him. Swinging at first pitches is part of his style and I'm not about to change the style of a lifetime .300 hitter. My direction on the bench had nothing to do with Ichiro and everything to do with our young players who had been swinging at bad first pitches."
Hargrove said that meeting with Ichiro was one of several he had with the outfielder during the season.
"When veterans come in to speak, a manager listens," Hargrove said. "My meetings with Ichiro were no different from anyone else, maybe they were a touch less informal because we had to have an interpreter. It does not mean that you always act on what they have to say. A ballclub is a democracy, but as Bear Bryant used to say, everyone has a vote, but on his teams only his vote counts."
In the wake of Ichiro's comments, however translated, there would seem to be seeds of conflict in the Seattle clubhouse. Indeed, in 2005, with old friends like Mike Cameron, Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez gone, Ichiro seemed isolated to begin with.
"I don't want to get into specifics of what Ichiro said or did not say, but I see no problem with him speaking out," Hargrove said. "He has every right to speak his mind. I will say this, that usually when they have something critical to say, it is said behind closed doors.
"But you should take what Ichiro had to say in a positive light. That as a veteran, Ichiro has the right to speak up, and did, and that from the number of years he has played with the Mariners, he is starting to develop as a leader.
"Hearing any player such as Ichiro speak out, is just part of a long season in the process of turning this situation around in Seattle."
The heart of the whole matter, in virtually every word he spoke, is Ichiro's focus on the fans.
As the translation of the Number magazine story quoted him:
"I really don't want to talk about stuff like this. But I feel I have to give a frank answer if I'm asked because there were fans who had paid money to watch a last-place team play. That's why I wanted to play as well as I could, and why I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to live up to the fans' expectations.
