On August 6 baseball magazine Baseball America chose Ichiro Suzuki as their number one on a list of the ‘Top 10 Most Prodigious Best Tools Winners Of The Millennium’, beating out greats such as Pujols and Verlander.
Of course he’s a legend in his home country of Japan, but during his many years in the major league he’s also gained plenty of American fans. To celebrate his win, we want to share this video of a ‘super happy Ichiro fan’, with ‘super happy’ being somewhat of an understatement.
Ichiro has many devout fans on both sides of the pond, some of whom have become famous themselves as super fans. Amy Franz, the ‘Ichimeter Lady’, became well-known for her idea of the ‘Ichimeter’, a sign she made to count the player’s progress towards breaking George Sisler’s record of 257 hits in a season. The interaction between the two has become a famous story even in Japan, and after being traded to the New York Yankees Ichiro personally thanked Amy for all her support over the years.
This time, however, we’ve got a different lady to show. Her name is Alice Skinner, and this video was taken on July 8, 2010 at a match between the Seattle Mariners vs New York Yankees, when she was a 17-year-old high school student and Ichiro was still playing for the Mariners. Check out this absolutely brilliant reaction when she comes face to face (or should that be hand to face?) with her hero.
Here’s what happened: The ball flies into the stands and Ichiro makes a dash for it. He reaches but doesn’t quite make it, and ends up basically punching the girl in the front row in the face. But is she upset? Quite the opposite! When he asks her if she’s okay, she completely freaks out at the fact that her hero is standing right in front of her, and has even touched her. And not just any touch, but a full on whack across the face! She immediately pulls out her cellphone, perhaps to tweet her good fortune to the world, or to tell her boyfriend that she’s leaving him for her new man. Meanwhile her friend looks around awkwardly as though to say ‘I do not know her.’
Her reaction was broadcast live from various angles and in slow motion and she even received some free Ichiro goods from TV stations, presumably for providing such great extra entertainment.
Ichiro now plays for the team that were his opponents in this match, the New York Yankees, but we’re sure that this fan is still cheering for him.
Source: YouTube, Baseball America
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