JUPITER, Fla. — First is always most difficult. Because failure will have tentacles beyond the person failing. When first fails, all that comes after is so much trickier. Will there even be a second? When? At what level of scrutiny?
Ichiro Suzuki was the first Japanese position player signed by a major league team. But he was not just any player. Not even just any great player. At home he was Elvis and Babe Ruth and Bill Gates. Rolled into one. He was icon, idol and myth. As I have learned through the years, baseball is held at an exalted level in Japan, no one was held higher than Ichiro and, thus, the concern of a whole country if he could make it in the best league in the world was palpable and paramount.