Although "At the Plate with...Ichiro" ends with the Seattle Mariner's rookie season in 2001 it is still worth reading. That is because the point of Matt Christopher's book is how a player everybody said was too short, too skinny, and too weak to make it in professional baseball in the United States ended up winning both the American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards. Even though Ichiro continues to be a star, last year breaking George Sisler's record for most hits in a single season, the key lesson here is how he succeeded as the first Japanese-born position player in Major League Baseball.In the first chapter Christopher sets up the context for Ichiro's accomplishments by looking at "The American Pastime in Japan." To understand what Ichiro did young readers have to know about the history of the game in Japan and Masanori Murakami, who became the first Japanese player to play professional baseball in the United States when he pitched for the San Francisco Giants in 1964-65 (I have his rookie card). But Christopher also talks about the cultural differences in how the game is played on each side of the Pacific. By the time you get to the big splash by Hideo Nomo in 1994, the struggles of Hideki Irabu, and the relative success of Kazuhiro Sasaki, you can appreciate the odds that Ichiro was facing.
It is only then that Christopher tells the story of how Ichiro was first introduced at the age of three to the game of baseball by his father and went on to become not only the greatest baseball player in Japan (lifetime batting average of .353), but also the most popular figure in the country. Christopher devotes less attention to Ichiro's actual accomplishments on the field in winning seven consecutive batting titles and three MVP awards and spends more time setting up Ichiro's decision to play in the United States. Consequently, young readers will understand why the Mariners were the only team to bid for his services and why Ichiro was ecstatic to be playing for a team on the West Coast.
Six of the book's ten chapters are devoted to the 2001 season, and I was happy to see that Christopher had the story of how Ichiro was driving Seattle manager Lou Piniella (now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays) crazy in spring training by just hitting balls to the left side of the infield. Of course there was a method to Ichiro's madness and the story sets up the success to come. I also appreciated how Christopher would talk about Ichiro's first bunt in the Major Leagues in detail, stressing both the strategy behind and the execution of the play. One thing young baseball players will get from reading this biography is how hard work and intelligence are just as crucial as natural ability in playing the game.
The rest of the book covers that 2001 season, when Ichiro got off to a hot start, made the All-Star team, and set some records. Again, Christopher tells specific stories with key details and does not just rely on listing statistics. There are eight pages of black & white photographs of Ichiro with Seattle along with a couple of pages of statistics and records in the middle of the book. Christopher has written enough sports fiction for young readers to know how to work in lessons along with the biography in this informative and insightful book. Other baseball players that Christopher has written about in a similar fashion include Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Alex Rodriguez, and Curt Schilling (Position players are "At the Plate" and pitcher are "On the Mound").
