Mariners History: Ichiro Suzuki fooled everyone before historic rookie season

The year 2026 marks an important quarter-century anniversary for the Seattle Mariners. It's been 25 years since Ichiro Suzuki took Major League Baseball by storm, winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP. It was the first stop on his road to the Hall of Fame.

Yet here's a funny part that should be remembered: During spring training, Ichiro had the Mariners not hyped, but worried.

The Mariners did their best to sell Ichiro after signing him as a free agent, with Howard Lincoln even proclaiming him to be "one of the very best baseball players in the world." Yet Ichiro was also trying to be the first Japanese position player to make it in MLB, and he was in the spotlight at a moment when the departures of Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez still stung in the Pacific Northwest.

Ichiro Suzuki had everyone fooled during the spring of 2001

If any fans had doubts about Ichiro heading into spring training for the 2001 season, it wasn't just them. He also had to win over his new teammates and manager Lou Piniella, who were pretty much united in their skepticism of the club's spindly new right fielder.

“I think everyone was skeptical,” recalled former reliever Jeff Nelson to Larry Stone of The Seattle Times in 2001. “He didn’t really do anything in spring training, and people were thinking, 'This guy might be overmatched.’"

Of particular consternation to Piniella was how Ichiro kept punching weakly hit balls to the left side of the field. Such an approach wasn't exactly befitting of a Mariners star at the time. They were used to having their offense being driven by fearsome sluggers like Griffey, Rodriguez, Edgar Martínez and Jay Buhner. Ichiro didn't even come close to fitting the mold.

As legend has it, though, things turned when Piniella issued Ichiro a challenge of sorts. He asked if the 27-year-old rookie ever turned on the ball, to which Ichiro replied, "Yeah, sometimes."

Bench coach John McLaren can take it from here:

"The first time up in the bottom of the first, he hit one up on the hill. He came back to the dugout, took his helmet off, and said, ‘Is that turning on the ball, Skip?’ It was priceless."

John McLaren

It was after this that Piniella granted Ichiro permission to do whatever he wanted. The rest is history, as he went on to bat .350, steal 56 bases and score 127 runs in what might be the greatest rookie season in MLB history.

Naturally, this anecdote also conjures up one of the great baseball mysteries of the 21st century: whether Ichiro could have hit for more power. He never hit more than 15 home runs in a season, yet he also seemed to be able to hit the ball over the fence on command. But this is probably a "print the legend" aspect of Ichiro's greatness, and it's not as if he needed power to be a superstar.

Either way, the legacy of the spring of 2001 for the Mariners is the same: It's the last time anyone had any doubt that Ichiro Suzuki was something special.