Ichiro Changes His Stance, The Assault on Aestheticism Begins

Nothing beautiful can last forever. It’s why James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are still so popular—their looks will never see the damage of time and being out in the sun without sunscreen. For a while, Ichiro Suzuki seemed to be the one person immune to all of that. He’s still tall and thin, avoiding the middle aged expansion that happens to even the best of us. (Some say that by the time Ken Griffey Jr retired, his butt could hold a collection of Encyclopedia Britannicas). Ichiro was a real life Dorian Gray, though without all the murdering and such.

Last year, Baseball Prospectus wrote in their annual:

“Suzuki will be 37 on Opening Day, and while he won’t continue to cheat Father Time forever, the next [crack] in his armor will be the first.”

Sadly, 2011 saw Ichiro fail to record 200 hits, hit .300, or post an above-league average OPS+ (84) for the first time in his career. Time seemed to have finally caught up with The Flash in Stirrups, necessitating a drastic change. Just as Craig Counsell stopped holding his bat high above his head like a 1950s housewife attacking a mouse when his batspeed deserted him, Ichiro has widened his stance and cut down on all the moving parts. New swing below (via Lookout Landing by way of Larry Stone):

Gone is the leg kick and the strange hesitation where his body thrust forward while the bat remained silent and poised to strike. It was a swing that defied all kinds of logical thinking, one that I failed to ever properly impersonate even in wiffleball, and he has now joined the ranks of the average and boring Major Leaguers surrounding him. The next logical step is a scraggly goatee.

In some way, Ichiro may have convinced himself that the switch was done to emphasize his power potential now that he’ll be batting in the three hole, but the truth lies in time’s onward march. Baseball is a better sport with Ichiro playing and doing so at a high level, and if making his swing a little more conventional is the way to do it, then so be it. But life is a little less fun now that Ichiro has had to step down from his mount and join the rest of the athletically gifted mortals that are his teammates and peers.

UPDATE: I’ve changed the wording of Baseball Prospectus’ paragraph in light of recent issues. While I don’t believe there was any racial intent on behalf of the original writer, unlike the ESPN headline, it’s an issue that will only detract from the point of the post.