And it was a clubhouse in need of some direction, given the problems engulfing it as the season came undone. When it came to Ichiro, who got off to a typically slow start in April and part of May, the internal turmoil nearly hit its boiling point.
"I just can't believe the number of guys who really dislike him," said one clubhouse insider. "It got to a point early on when I thought they were going to get together and go after him."
The coaching staff and then-manager John McLaren intervened when one player was overheard talking — in reference to Ichiro — about wanting to "knock him out." A team meeting was called to clear the air.
It was a repeat of May 2007, when Mike Hargrove was in charge and a team meeting had to be called during a series at Tampa Bay because of clubhouse bickering over Ichiro being a "selfish" player.
Today, there was reaction to that story in the Times.
USS Mariner had a few things to say yesterday."I've had talks with everybody on the team, at some time or another, about something in their game — whether it's a pitcher or whether it's a position player," [Manager Jim] Riggleman said. "Almost everybody on the team, at some time or another, I've said 'I'd like to see you do a little more of this, a little less of that.'
"Some of that is based on vibes you're getting from the team, that maybe they feel like somebody should do more of this or more of that. And you're somewhat in agreement. You try to nip it in the bud. You don't want the sniping. And I've talked about it with just about everybody on the team at one time or another. But has there been a meeting to address that? No."
[J.J.] Putz told reporters: "People have a lot of differences of opinion on a lot of things, but to say something like that in the paper and not fess up as to who it is, whoever said it is a coward."
Teammates Hate Ichiro, We Hate Teammates
Quick Question
A brief comparison of Ichiro and Ibanez
Jim Riggleman is Awesome
The larger issues
Some excerpts from the above posts:
Yep - the explanation given is that teammates want to “knock him out” because he plays when he’s less than 100% healthy. What a bastard. How could he possibly garner the respect of his teammates when he’s selfishly hurting the team by playing at a diminished level and keeping guys out of the line-up who could have helped the team win? If only he would learn how to be a clubhouse leader, such as Raul Ibanez, who would never struggle through pain, costing the team valuable runs in a playoff race while a ready replacement was waiting in the wings.
Oh, wait, that’s EXACTLY what Raul Ibanez did last year.
...
If clubhouse access allows reporters with press passes advanced insight and a perspective unavailable to the masses, why weren’t issues like the clubhouse-versus-Ichiro reported at the time, when they happened?
...
Shouldn’t the conversation have gone more like
Anonymous clubhouse coward: “Hey, so yeah, we all hate Ichiro and in May we were going to kick his ass because he wasn’t hitting.”
Baker: “Okay, but he was hitting, he started off May on an amazing streak and was stealing bases two a game.”
Anonymous clubhouse coward: “Uh, never mind.”
...
And then this is just tremendous:
Rats are the first one of the ship. When the ship is sinking the rats are the first ones off. They’re the ones scavenging everything on the ship when it’s floating good and going good, but when it’s sinking the rats are the first ones to abandon the ship.
....
We’re a week away from the end of the regular season, and we haven’t read a good GM article in ages. Who’s on the list? Who’s available, and what other options are out there for candidates? That’s the kind of thing that’ll matter to the franchise. Because when they’re winning again, Ichiro will go back to being the weirdly-dressed, funny and sometimes foul-mouthed leader-by-example, all of this will be forgotten, and we won’t have to wonder which team personnel are fighting a proxy mud flinging contest in the press.
All of which is reason enough to hope they get this ship turned around.
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