Ichiro walks by while Hasegawa talks. Nobody bothers Ichiro in the Mariners clubhouse, and he claims not to understand English. But he is intrigued by the conversation between his teammate and the visitor from Boston.

''We are talking about you,'' Hasegawa says with a smile.

Ichiro smiles, and says something in Japanese.

The visitor from Boston says the way to pitch Ichiro is to never throw him a strike. Hasegawa relays this in Japanese, gets an answer from his teammate and says, ''He says if you throw him the ball away, he will walk. He's not stupid. They don't pitch strikes, he's gonna walk.''

Can he control where the ball is going?

He hears the question from Hasegawa, answers in Japanese, and his translator comes back with, ''Sure. Control the ball. That's me.''

The visitor says to tell Ichiro that American League pitchers this year will try to make him hit the ball in the air. That would be the best way to get him out. Hasegawa relays the words. Ichiro nods, then says, in English, ''Get on top of that [expletive]! Whoa. Sorry about that.''

Ichiro walks away, laughing. The game's best leadoff hitter, the Rookie of the Year and MVP of the American League in 2001, has delivered his message. He will be patient enough to walk if you don't throw him strikes. He will get on top of the ball any time he swings at a pitch. And in case you were wondering, he understands a little English, certainly some of our curse words.

Ichiro Mania stormed the American League last year. The first Japanese position player to play in the majors hit .350 and led the American League with 56 stolen bases in 70 attempts. He walked only 30 times in 738 plate appearances and led the league with 242 hits. The fastest player in baseball from home plate to first base (3.8 seconds), he beat out more than 80 infield hits and seemed able to aim the ball from the batter's box. Sparked by the addition of the game's greatest leadoff hitter, the Mariners won 116 games, tying the major league record.

''We felt he would do a real nice job for us out of the leadoff spot and he exceeded our expectations,'' said American League Manager of the Year Lou Piniella. ''We knew we were getting a good ballplayer, a player that would make contact and use the whole field, and utilize his speed. But we didn't realize he would hit .350 his first year at the big league level and lead the league in stolen bases to boot. We had an advantage over these other teams because he was in our camp a few years ago in spring training. We saw him enough to know he could come here and be a leadoff hitter for us.

''In Japan he hit leadoff, second, third, and fourth. We weren't quite sure where to hit him. We'd lost Alex Rodriguez and Junior Griffey in the middle of our lineup. Sometime during the middle of spring training we thought about putting him in the 3-hole to bolster our middle lineup, but we decided - and thankfully we did - to keep him in the leadoff role.''

He got them going

With his feet moving in the batter's box, Ichiro slapped hits all over the park last year. He seemed to be two steps up the first base line before making contact. He scored 127 runs in 157 games and the Mariners rolled.

Hasegawa, who pitched for the Angels last year, said, ''We talked about how to stop him. Actually, there's no chance. You want to get him out with ground ball, but it's a ground ball single. We'd just go in with a high pitch and pop him up, that's it. Ground ball? No chance. I faced him three times. Gave up two singles, of course. Got him out one time on ground ball to first base. That's the way. But if it's a ground ball to shortstop, even a Nomar Garciaparra, it's still hard.''

Bret Boone, who knocked in 141 runs while hitting with Ichiro on base most of the year, said, ''I saw the guy get a hit in more ways than I've ever seen anyone get a hit. When you've got a good leadoff hitter, that's big for a team because right out of the gate it puts pressure on the other team. He gets a hit and steals second and all of a sudden you got a chance to be up, 1-0. And that's big for a team.

''I don't know what he does. I think he's got a basic approach. He wants to shoot the ball the other way, or pull the ball if the situation dictates. He can do whatever he wants. But I think his main approach is to hit that hole between third and short and beat out a base hit. If it's really good, it's in the gap. In certain situations he'll look to turn on the ball. If he played on turf, I think he'd have a lot more extra-base hits, but he uses grass to his advantage - that slow roller that doesn't quite get to the shortstop.

''It's tough for him to really go into a slump. He makes contact so well, always putting the ball into play, and he's running out these hits. So when he's not swinging that good, he can beat out hits.''

New Mariner Jeff Cirillo is expected to hit behind Ichiro this year. Mike Cameron, Mark McLemore, and Carlos Guillen are other potential No. 2 hitters.

''We use a lot of matchup lineups,'' said Piniella. ''Behind Ichiro, we want a good fastball hitter in the 2-hole and we want somebody from the right side that can hit the ball behind the runner. We've got four players that can do that, so the second hole will be an easy spot for us to fill.

''Ichiro belongs in the leadoff spot. He doesn't strike out, he puts the ball in play, he steals bases. He makes our offense go. He doesn't walk much and we're not going to ask him to. When you don't swing and miss very often, it's hard to walk, and he didn't swing and miss very often. He puts the ball in play. That type of player is not going to walk very much at all, and at the same time he's aggressive. He's not the most patient hitter in the world, but I think he sees the ball a little better than most guys.''

Master of control

Piniella hasn't had to manage against Ichiro. He knows it's a problem for 13 American League skippers.

''You don't want to walk him,'' said Piniella. ''You don't want him on base too often. He can steal the base and he's going to get your second and third hitters more fastballs to hit. He's cat-quick. When he gets on base, he scores.

''He doesn't fly out very often. When the infielders try to cheat a little, he tries to hit that hole. He's got darn good bat control. On turf, he chops it, and that ball gets up in the air a little bit ... you might as well eat it. You're not going to throw him out.

''Basically, he can control the ball. He can hit the ball from line to line. Over the course of a week, if he flies out two or three times, it's too many times.''

Hasegawa knows the difficulty of pitching to the game's best leadoff man.

''I'm not gonna think about him because there's no chance to get him out,'' said the veteran setup man. ''Let him hit, ground ball, single, whatever. Think about the next hitter. Don't think about this guy because it's a waste of energy. He's gonna hit anyway.''

This story ran on page D3 of the Boston Globe on 3/29/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.