Ichiro to Play for Japan in March World Baseball Classic
Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki couldn't say "no" to Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh, accepting professional baseball's all-time home run king's invitation to participate in the World Baseball Classic for his native country.
Ichiro's agent, Tony Attanasio, confirmed the offer and acceptance.
"Mr. Oh extended a formal invitation and Ichiro accepted,"Attanasio told the Seattle Times. "For the longest time media people had been asking [Ichiro] if he was going to play for Japan. But it was not that simple; Ichiro had to be [extended] a formal invitation.
"Now there has been an invitation, and Ichiro was delighted to accept. He really wants to play for his country."
Oh, who hit 868 career home runs for the Yomiuri Giants, will manage the Japanese WBC squad.
The 16-nation tournament will be played March 3-20 in Tokyo, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Phoenix and Florida. Major League Baseball plans to announce several players, as well as the U.S. manager, during a Monday press conference at the Winter Meetings in Dallas.
The press conference will be shown live at MLB.com.
Ichiro becomes the second big-name MLB player to commit to the WBC -- the first time big-league players will participate in an Olympic-style event. On Monday, Giants left fielder Barry Bonds announced that he would play for the U.S. team.
Attanasio told the Seattle Times that Ichiro would work out at Safeco Field for several weeks before returning to Japan in February to prepare for the WBC and the Mariners' regular season, which begins April 3 in Seattle against the Angels.
"He'll be doing the exact same thing he does every offseason, working his tail off to be ready to play," Attanasio said. "Only instead of doing it near Kobe, his hometown, he'll be doing it with the Japanese team near Tokyo."
Ichiro is the first player in MLB history to record at least 200 hits in each of his first five seasons. He finished with 206 hits this past season, one year after breaking the all-time single-season hit record with 262 hits. Hall of Fame first baseman George Sisler held the record (257) for 84 years.
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