I Am Deep Down An Ichiro "Trick Shot" Rabbit Hole And Couldn't Be Happier
Last night I got home from work late as fuck (and pretty buzzed) and saw the video above on my Instagram timeline.
Somehow I had never seen this before. I sat there mesmerized letting it play on loop and trying to look for camera tricks or editing but couldn't spot any.
I think I watched it about 200 times over and over and in complete awe.
The haters in the comment section (of the Instagram post, not this lovely website) are all saying the video is doctored up and Ichior didn't knock all those bats down consecutively, nor knock the lid off that trash can and then sink the next immediate throw inside of it.
But my eyes see none. That looks like the real deal to me.
I looked deeper into it and found this video on tik tok of him filling that trash can dozens of throws later
I did some more digging and found that both clips came from this Japanese tv commercial
Which immediately gave me Mike Vick Powerade commercial vibes
So I did some more digging. And found this ridiculous compilation somebody put together of him slashing and slapping
Then there was this one of him gunning out morons who thought they could run on him
And this top ten video capped by his All-Star Game in the park home run
Guy was the epitome of a freak show.
Look at these numbers -
His 3,089 hits in the Majors rank 22nd all-time, and his career .311 batting average ranks 13th highest among the 32 players in the 3,000-hit club. Because he was never a significant power hitter, with just 117 homers, or .01 yabo per at-bat, his .402 slugging percentage is the lowest among that elite group.
Ichiro reached 3,000 hits in 10,333 plate appearances and 2,452 games, the 13th and 14th quickest to do so for each, respectively.
Including his 1,278 hits over nine seasons in the Japan Pacific League, before he came to the Majors, Ichiro has 4,367 hits, 111 more than Pete Rose.
He won the American League batting title, the AL Rookie of the Year Award and the AL MVP Award in 2001, and he remains the only player in MLB history to win all three in his first season. (Fred Lynn is the only other player to win the Rookie of the Year Award and the MVP Award in the same season, doing so with the Red Sox in 1975.)
(Here's a great fun fact - Only once in his MLB career did Ichiro finish a game with his career batting average below .300. That came when he took an 0-for-4 in his second game as a rookie, making him 2-for-9 (.222) overall. He promptly went 2-for-4 in the next game and never looked back.)
Again, ABSOLUTE FREAK.
If those videos weren't enough for you, dive into this 22-minute gem.