Ichiro Suzuki bounced around left field in Yankee Stadium during batting practice, getting a sense of how the ball travels in his new home ballpark and getting a look at the view from what will be his new position.
Suzuki was set to make his debut in pinstripes when the New York Yankees played the Boston Red Sox for the first time this season in the Bronx.
Having played in New York dozens of times, Suzuki knows it will take some work to fully win over the fans.
"As a visitor you come in here, a lot of fans in the stands are tough on the players," Suzuki said through a translator. "Right now I'm wearing the pinstripes. When I go out there, hopefully those fans will be on my side."
The familiar cry of "Ichiiiiiro!" rang out once in a near empty stadium when the 10-time All-Star took the field for early batting practice with a small group of his new teammates. He received a warm ovation when the lineups were announced just minutes before game time and a loud cheer when he acknowledged the Bleacher Creatures with a wave during roll call in the first inning.
The Yankees know they aren't getting the same player who won 10 Gold Gloves or has over 3,800 hits in his career in the major leagues and Japan combined. While he still wields his bat like a deft swordsman, he doesn't slice hits all over the field at quite the same pace as he used to.
His on-base percentage of .288 is almost 40 points lower than his career batting average. He went 3 for 12 in his first three games for New York in Seattle and is hitting .261 this season.
Still, he is one of the top outfielders in the game and can run, two elements that have been missing from the Yankees lineup since Brett Gardner went out with an elbow injury on April 28 and had surgery last week. Suzuki batted eighth and started in right field Friday night but he will move to left when Nick Swisher returns from a hip flexor injury - possibly Saturday, manager Joe Girardi said.
All the talk of Suzuki being a problem in the young Seattle clubhouse, isolating himself and acting coldly to teammates, hasn't been evident in his first five days with the Yankees. In the New York clubhouse, he was given a locker between former teammates Rafael Soriano and Raul Ibanez where his ever present black bat case was standing on end. He has politely chatted with the many Japanese reporters who have followed him to New York, and he has gone about his idiosyncratic routine without issue.
"As a visitor coming in for 12 years I've gotten to see some of what goes on here," he said. "What I realize is mentally, it really is different than the teams I have been on."
Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine has been a champion of Suzuki going way back to the mid-1990s when he was a manager in Japan, and Suzuki was a rising star. He would prefer that Suzuki finds his stride in New York after the weekend.
"I want to see him get to the plate and go back to the dugout," Valentine said.
"It'll be exciting for him and the fans. I think he's a special person and a special baseball player, and now he's in a special situation."
AP