Reacting to SB Nation - The Age of Ichiro | Dorktown 

Ichiro was literally a freak of nature. His ability to put the bat on the ball is God like. He is a living legend

The reason why they struggled against Ichiro is because he focused on putting the ball in play. He doesn't strike out. Ichiro is the most talented hitter of all time. It isn't because he's from Japan, it's because he was so smart, a true genius of hitting, and put the ball in play more than any other player in baseball.

This may be most attractive to a smaller number of viewers, but you don't have to be a Mariners fan to appreciate the series of videos. You merely have to love baseball. Me, I'm a massive Ichiro fan. He's my second-favorite player of all time (Mickey Mantle will always be number one).

When combining his Japan and MLB stats he hit over 4000 hits

React to “ lonnie smith: pretty good” its part of a series by jon bois its a great story

Ichiro is in consideration as the greatest hitter and most skilled baseball player to ever play. He truly could do it all defensively and offensively. Fun facts: He spent his first 9 seasons in Japan and is still #24 all time in MLB hits. He holds the record for most hits in an MLB season with 262. He won the batting title, rookie of the year, and MVP as an MLB rookie in 2001, the only person ever to accomplish this He won a gold glove each of his first ten seasons, and is one of seven players to steal 500 bases and record 3000 hits.

Growing up in the 90's with a father that was born in Washington, Seattle teams were a big deal. Ichiro quickly became to this day my all time favorite baseball player.

E like the letter Chee like in cheese row like a boat Ee-chee-row Ichiro

Ichiro was so good because he was playing a different game than everyone else. They couldn't walk him because he was too fast on the bases, and he never loaded up to hit for power, just put the ball in play and let his speed take care of the rest.

Loved this reaction series so much! Pronunciation of Ichiro: EE-chee-roh

He got so many hits bc he was a unique hitter with tremendous speed. He turned routine groundball outs into hits. He was out of the batter's box virtually as he made contact. Then he could also hit to all sides of the field. It's said if wanted to sacrifice average for power he could've hit 40 hr's a year. In batting practice he would just "serve" balls into the right field stands like a tennis player

He broke so many records because of his mechanics, he batted left (first base side) he had a swinging motion where he had already started running as he was swinging so he wasn't worried about hitting the ball hard, he placed the ball where he wanted it and had the speed to beat it out with players often making errors on defense knowing they had to hurry to catch him. Players today are worried about power and driving the ball. The last true slap hitters were Ichiro and to a lesser extend Derek Jeter who had more of an inside out swing pushing the ball to opposite field. My opinion he was the greatest player to ever play, complete 5 tool player. Yes 5 tool player, he choose not to hit for power because he was more effective slapping the ball but when the game was on the line and he could end it with a home run he changed his just a tiny bit to have move lift and power with those fast wrists he could destroy the ball.

Watching Ichiro play and even warm up in person is Amazing, he is just an oz and talent and it does not even seem human sometimes. I remember getting my hat signed by him great guy

Fun fact: The other team that won 116 games in the regular season was the 1906 Chicago Cubs, who also did not win a championship. (They lost 4-2 in the 1906 World Series against the 93-58 Chicago White Sox, who were known as the "Hitless Wonders".)

I love your videos, dude! It’s so cool to see someone from Britain taking interest in baseball, which is sort of the quintessential American game. Literally, THE American game. I love your channel, and you review terrific videos.

It's kind of funny - in all four of the major North American sports leagues, the greatest regular season team of all time failed to win the title. MLB - 2001 Mariners NHL - 1995-96 Red Wings & 2018-19 Lightning NFL - 2007 Patriots NBA - 2016 Warriors

After the crazy Mike Blowers prediction, you gotta do a reaction to “MLB Predicted Home Runs” by the channel Sporting Videos

Luka, I really appreciate watching this series as you are watching it. It makes it so much fun to see your discoveries about the Ms story and the players. The team has always tried to compete on the field. The previous two general managers (they mentioned Bavassi) made so many horrendous trades over about a 12 year period that we lost a great deal of talent and their trades included leaving the cupboard bare with the worst farm system in baseball for two years before our newest general manager came on board. He's in the process of orchestrating a rebuild while trying to develop a core of young solid athletic players. In some ways this unique series is like a melodrama and they give you a real good feel for the humanity of the whole situation of this ballclub that's never gone to the World Series. It also shows you how hard it is to get there especially when you're not in a major market. Yet you see that the team certainly has a quirky history and I appreciate the humour. You are really getting to know the Mariners. I also understand the sense of approaching emptiness when the last episode has been seen. Good to have you on board ! You do a great job !

I love these videos, probably the only hour long youtube videos I'll ever watch. I don't watch baseball as much these days (mostly bc the M's have sucked for 18 years) but I was a diehard Mariner fan through all the 90s and the beginning of the Ichiro era

ichiro was simply one of the greatest of all time. baseball's been around since the 1830s when it was amateur clubs in NYC that played in parks and the streets for fun up through today. and ichiro was one of the top guys in all that time.

A ball hit right up the middle is NOT an "awkward spot". That is literally where you are supposed to hit the ball

This series really shows one thing. Baseball is weird...

Ichiro-Sama is baseball's equivalent to Wayne Gretzky, I'm terms of how truly dominant they were in their respective sports.

U should watch The Sandlot, made in the 90s, takes place in the 50s, the absolute greatest baseball movie of all time

My uncle used to have shared season tickets behind the Mariner's dugout; I had the privilege of watching Ichiro live in dozens of games. The craziest part of his game (that most people overlook) was his incredible power. One afternoon, I was "The Holder of the Tickets" and misread the time of the game, meaning we were at the stadium 3 hours early (I'm sure my uncle knew this and was just waiting for the look on my face when I realized my error). We did however get to see Ichiro square off against Bucky Jacobsen (BUCKY!) in batting practice. The exact numbers are fuzzy, but I know Ichiro DIDN'T homer on 3 or 4 pitches, while Bucky hit only 3 homers. He was putting the ball on the ground intentionally because he knew that: while a 1-0 lead is nice in the first inning, he could do more damage to the opposing defense from the bases. He was the ultimate offensive player.

He is absolutely the greatest hitter of all time. One of my favorite stats of his was that the mlb average for hitting a home run with no runners on base was around 1 in 43, for ichiro it was 1 in 85 or so. When you flipped it to when the bases were loaded he flipped the table entirely and would hit a home run in one of every 40 something at bats when the league average dropped to 1 in 90 or so. He could hit anything he wanted, he just was so smart at hitting that he knew what would give his team the best advantage to do better

By far the most successful Japanese player in the history of baseball, absolute legend here in Seattle.

Thank you so much for taking us on this journey with you!

i'm so glad my hometown team is finaly getting exposure other than people just shitting on it, keep it up bro love the content

I'm a Royals fan, but 2 of my favorite players are Ichiro and Griffey Jr. Class and phenomenal.

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Yes we love seeing your reaction to this very long video. Actually my interests are equal parts this fantastic documentary and seeing you further develop an appreciation for the sport we love so much. I actually grew up in the 70's when baseball was truly king. Before cable TV and the internet we would spend hours listening to baseball games on the radio. And the fact the baseball has so many games and such a long season meant that there was a game on 4 or 5 times per week. My brothers and I would practice throwing fastball, and curve balls for strikes and I swear I can still do it even today in my 50's. Not with much velocity but still throw strikes one after another due to muscle memory and proper mechanics. Looking forward to seeing the finale of this incredible documentary. Great job Luka...⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wow I know what I’m doing for the next hour!!

I love that A-Rod's contract in 2001 was seen as highway robbery and fans hated that he was so overpaid(for money then, technically he was), but now we have players competing for nearly $40M a year contracts.

Ichiro's hit records are 1. because he put everything in play and rarely struck out. and 2. because his speed made hits out of a ton of would-be outs.

The crazy thing is the advantage starts shifting from the pitcher to the hitter the more they face each other. So Ichiro arguably may have had even MORE success from 2001 on had he entered the league earlier.

This video mentions Randy ‘The Big Unit’ Johnson almost in passing. It is worth a bit of research but the single most famous pitch Randy Johnson ever threw, NEVER reached the plate. All baseball fans know this story. Johnson’s on the mound, gets the signal from his catcher, rears back, throws it.......and while the pitch is in the air, a bird flew into the ball’s path. The results were catastrophic for the bird. There’s video and it is worth a watch.

@10:40 I once read the testimony of a chalk producer who was forced out of the business but was sad for not taking the financial loss to keep supplying the teachers that were sending praise and talking about how it was the only chalk they could use, as if this chalk was the one chalk that, combined with any ordinary chalkboard, was even better than markers and markerboards of today

@7:59 I only previously knew Aaron Sele off of a baseball card from his Boston Red Sox days then, but he was solid before playing for the Mariners

20:38 You answer your own question at 22:08. Ichiro hit the ball to awkward spots, spots that fielders couldn't get to or get there in time. He could also 'bend' the ball with his bat, much like footballers and tennis players do. He wasn't a 'smasher', but did have the power to go yard when he needed to.

“This has to be the best season ever, it has to be” Well... define best

@17:02 not laughing about the "I guess I'll die" part. He went all in on baseball, which his dad was pressuring him into, but in a way where he proved how way much more he could know about baseball and do through baseball

react to: 222-0. PRETTY GOOD, EPISODE 10.

been waiting for this, love the channel bro

please react to more videos by foolish baseball!

this series really could have made more references to Hiroshi Yamauchi... he really reminds me of my business-minded grandmother but a dude going HAM

As a Seattle resident and sport team enthusiast, thank you for even covering the Mariners.

16:15 MLB and NPB (Japan's pro baseball association) did indeed have an agreement in place where players on Japanese teams would not be approached by MLB teams to sign away on free agent contracts until a certain number of season played in NPB and getting a posting compensation by soliciting bids from interested MLB clubs, because the "you will only play for the holder of this contract" clause only applies to other teams in the same organization as you. MLB is richer and therefore, if allowed, could just buy out most of NPB's best players without recourse without the agreement. I don't remember if this agreement is still in place, though.

React to The Reverse of the curse of the Bambino (Babe Ruth) to give more context to the Red Sox Yankees Rivalry and the Yankees success as a team (It’s about the length of this video)

@8:47 that season my parents took me a few hundred miles to see a Mariners game and my Dr. dad told me he knew Bret Boone was using steroids because of the characteristic acne breakouts for someone too old for that to be natural. My dad nailed it.

Ichiro is a baseball god. In an era where everyone was swinging for the fences, Ichiro was more than comfortable hitting singles and getting on base. It’s a terrible shame we came over to the big leagues at age 27 because he could’ve easily broken Pete Rose’s hits record with a few more seasons. I had the privilege of watching Ichiro, although way past his prime, play for my Miami Marlins where he collected his 3,000th hit in the big leagues. When you combine his hits from Japan with his hits here he has more hits than anybody in the history of pro baseball. But of course the Japanese league is not as strong as the Majors so nobody adds stats there to stats here.

Mariners have a chance to make the playoffs this year! They have to catch the Astros of all teams haha. Kyle Lewis is an absolute stud btw!

I know im late to this 😂 but I've got a series kind of like this you should react to. Its a documentary similar to this, its basically about how Pete Carroll built the seahawks legion of boom but from a seahawks fan perspective. I strongly recommend you check it out. Its called "Rain City Redemption". The first couple episodes are on youtube but the last couple are on vimeo.

The most admirable thing about Ichiro is that he played baseball like a game of chess. Everything he did was so calculated at a time where home runs and brute power were the status quo. They couldn’t beat Ichiro because he was so different. Instead of focusing on the conforming his batting style, he focused on doing what he felt most comfortable doing, while also emphasizing base running more than any other player.

I grew up watching and going to these games. I was 7, Ichiro was my favorite. Really miss these days

Secret Base did an episode of their Collapse series on how the Mariners went from tying the regular-season win record in 2001 to the lengthy postseason drought.

@11:27 I wonder how close Joel Ayayi could have got to Rickey Henderson... Ayayi's prolly too tall to steal so many bases but so sneaky with his ghost cut.

@4:24 yes, all flooding back to me now about that contract... even then, I wasn't mad about him taking a huge sum to go play for the Rangers. It only got kinda upsetting when he was playing for the Yankees, but he was with Madonna for a while as a Yankee. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Most amazing baseball player in history. Forget stats alone, Ichiro would make ANY team be a spectacle.

Also when ur grow up playing baseball. U r taught to hit the ball directly back up the middle, or back at the pitcher

Not mentioned was that Yankees-Mariners series happened a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, so the raw emotions propelling the Yankees are worth mentioning. They would go on to lose one of the most exciting World Series I've ever seen against Arizona--who was led by Randy Johnson on the mound.

Most definitely says all around players to ever walk ever watch the planet, at my favorite player all time, we miss you icho and hope for a retirement great retirement, all the fans and I pray for you and wish you the best buddy I wish we had a hundred like you

When Ichiro broke George Sisler's record (which had stood for 84 years), George Sisler's daughter was at the game. Ichiro went over to the stands and had a word with her immediately after breaking the record. It was an amazing experience. Two nights later was Edgar's last game. I was there. Whenever Edgar came up to bat, the crowd would chant "Edddddddd-Gar. Eddddddddd-Gar." That night, when he came up in the 8th inning and we knew it was going to be the last at bat of his career, we started chanting, and... nobody wanted to stop. It was the last time. It just went on and on. Gradually people would stop, and it slowly faded out. The two most moving moments in sports I've ever seen. Us Mariner's fans, we're blessed and cursed. Blessed to see some of the greatest players and greatest moments, cursed never to be champions.

Ichiro' only knock on him was that he did not bat for power, which meant his RBIs(only 529, really low for a 3000 hitter) was way low. For example Joe Mauer who was also a phenomenol hitter and catcher, despite only having 2200 hits drove in 923 runs with only 20 more home runs than Ichiro, the difference was that Mauer hite 500 doubles, which drove in a lot of runs.

Terrence Long sounds the name of a cartoon spider

jeez the pronunciations, mans forgot how to pronounce a "CH" sound

Something that could help explain the lower numbers for players, and coaches leaving is seasonal depression. Seattle's weather has grey skies for most of the year. People from other areas of the country that are used to the sun can become depressed with so many grey days.

Mike Cameron graduated a year before my mom from the same high school in LaGrange,GA back in '91. He kinda fell into that category of being a good overall MLB player but definitely not special enough for HOF consideration.

What an EPIC series.

@17:20 and after Rui Hachimura (first NBA lottery pick from Japan) had such a good game in the last Wizards game of the season... I see so many people demanding Rui be given the ball more often next season. So... Rui is certainly not gonna be the Ichiro of the NBA... wtf could that even mean? But hope he gets a chance next season... but @17:46 never seen that "Jackass the Film" kinda video of someone running naked in Times Square after losing that bet

Luka hears Ichiros name pronounced correctly and he still say it wrong though out the whole video, EACHiro, like you are saying the word each

Ichiro got just over 3,000 hits in the mlb but if u count his time in Japan it’s around 4,500 hits which is insane

Also pls react to something about David Ortiz. U saw him in this, th3 guy that hit home runs onto the highway. He was my childhood hero and my favorite player of all time

Thank you for the video, love seeing your content!

Here's a great one 10 greatest moments in the world series of the 21st century, Trust me if you don't know the outcomes it's an amazing video

I know this is incredibly niche and you’re not making much money out of it, but love it. More Bois/secret base videos! Great to relive them through your perspective

@14:40 that feel when Jon finally gets to his running speed and you know the laser beam throwing arm hasn't been featured yet 😅😳

Can't wait for the finale of this series. Grats on your longest video ever.

I’m sure you’ve heard of it but an absolutely awesome baseball movie, ‘Moneyball.’ This video talks about how wealthier teams can almost always go to poorer teams and just buy their best players. It really is completely unfair. In football there is a profit-sharing policy so no team is orders of magnitude wealthier than any other. Not so in baseball and the historic results indicate that. The Yankees are almost always at least contenders for the World Series and if on a year or more stretch they are not, then it’s usually easier for them to get back to that level due to them having the deepest pockets. The Yankees can just buy their way out of poor performing teams in a way simply not open to other, poorer, teams. ‘Moneyball’ explains how using modern means of data analysis poorer teams were able to compete.

keep up the great work my friend

As of one year ago, the mariners ended the drought and got to the playoffs. They missed the playoffs this year by 2 games.

Great to see someone react to our little Mariners. Only one thing is constant: This team is odd. Lifting Griffey on up on our shoulders just because we felt like it fits us perfectly.

The 2001 mariners didn't just kill my fathers love of the Mariners, but his love for baseball. In the last near 20 years a man who would take us to games and watch religiously never watched again. That says more about the depression mariners baseball causes than anything else.

I have never clicked so fast.

poor Seattle came up 2 games short in 2020 as well

At 14:31 when he shows the hit distribution chart there is someone that is almost identical to Ichiro... Who do you suppose that is? I'm gonna guess it's Ty Cobb. On the flip side who do you think was the most prolific pull hitter on the list with over 50% of their hits being pulled? I have no clue on this one. I looked at the list of ppl with 2,500+ hits and Barry Bonds was on there I know he pulled a lot at least late in his career but was always an all around good hitter. Same with Rafael Palmeiro. I remember Gary Sheffield could pull the ball pretty dramatically but I feel I remember plenty of opposite field jacks. I think Dave Parker pulled a lot but I'm 34 and never seen him play so I'm not sure. Vlad Guerrero had a dramatic pull but you never really knew where the ball was going off his bat (neither did he). Let me know what you think

All those not so serious side of baseball videos you reacted to months ago are like 50% Adrian Beltre. It is hard to notice for a newer fan because he has played for so many different teams.

It's been a while but you seem to really appreciate these high quality documentary style ones by Jon Bois and SB Nation. His best one ever in my opinion and with tons of goosebumps moments is called the Bob Emergency and its two parts that looks at the achievements in at least a dozen different sports for as long as we have records by people named Bob. He made the series because now they are disappearing but its one of the most diverse and unique groups to look at with plenty of moments to tear up at. tldr please check out the BOB EMERGENCY, love your stuff

@7:14 LMAO I followed that season from game 1 to the end as a kid... can you blame me for never following baseball ever again?!

You need to react to the ken Griffey jr documentary

Aw man, I was a kid when they made this run. It crushed me when I found out Boone was juicing. Watching Ichiro back then was something else though. You couldn't get him out.

@20:51 theory why Ichiro was so good? gonna just believe Ichiro that it was parental pressure

The 2001 Seattle Mariners were fun to watch over the season. Around August, I started to have reservations though. They didn't have an ace. Freddy Garcia was good, but he wasn't a shut down ace. They had Jamie Moyer, who was a good, crafty pitcher, but not an ace. John Halama? Not an ace. Aaron Sele? Also not an ace. Paul Abbott? Hah! They had a lower tier #1 pitcher, a two solid #2 pitchers, and two more that would be decent #3 starters. In a season, that worked great. They didn't have a three game losing streak, until September. They were not going to win the World Series that year. Even if they got past the Yankees, they would have lost to the twin ace stacked Diamondbacks team with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

React to America’s Game series! It’s a series about all the super bowl winning teams! Each episode is 40 min long and they pick 4 players to tell the story of the super bowl season! So far there’s 54 episodes

Welcome to Seattle Mariners baseball.

Ichiro was such a bad ass .. but shohei ohtani is doing things I’ve never seen in the pros .. he’s such a bad ass too it’s crazy my two favorite players maybe of all time are Japanese ..

Ichiro got all those hits because he didn’t take a lot of pitches out of the strike zone.

The 2001 Seattle Mariners: One of the greatest teams in MLB history...only to get their asses kicked by the Yankees.

Such a sick series

He is right handed but batted left so he’s that much closer to 1st base

@17:01 my dad bought me some Costco (based out of the Seattle area, Issaquah) book called Ichiro on Ichiro... it was about as useless and useful as this 😂