My One Ichiro Wish Came True

Ichiro Suzuki announced his retirement from professional baseball. I wanted to see one thing when I saw him play live; then it happened.

As a long time Twins fan, when the new stadium opened in 2010, my parents went in on one of those 20 game season ticket packages. On one particular night, we got to go to the Twins game versus the Mariners and the face of their franchise, Ichiro. Ichiro, who retired Thursday May 3rd, 2018 is apart of the 3,000 hit club and will end his career with a .311 batting average. He would have to have gone 0 for his next 385 at-bats to fall under the .300 mark. He's the only player EVER to have 10 straight seasons with 200+ hits.

But for as good of a hitter that he was, I was a fan of the cannon he had attached to his right shoulder. I remember turning to my brother and saying, "Don't get me wrong, I hope the Twins win but I want to see Ichiro hose someone at 3rd base from right [field]." My brother responded, "Does Ichiro have a good arm?" "A cannon!" In the middle of the game, my hope had come true. Michael Cuddyer rounded second on a grounder through the right side of the infield, and Ichiro would not let Cuddyer test his arm. Cuddyer was thrown out by about 7 feet.

I actually did get exactly what I was hoping for because we got to see Ichiro's arm and the Twins ended the night with the win.

Congratulations Ichiro on a great career.

Here is an example of Ichiro's arm versus the Oakland A's.