Masami writes about her hero: Ichiro

My hero is Ichiro Suzuki. He is cool. He is from Aichi prefecture. So, I have known about him for a long time. He played an active role in Japan. He has established one record after another. We were surprised at his play, but he was not satisfied with it. And then he became a major leaguer. It goes without saying that he is an excellent baseball player. He has played an active role in the Major League. This year, he took part in the 'World Baseball Classic', it is called 'WBC'. He was different from formerly. He had sociability. I was happy because I saw his new side. I hope that he plays an active role this year.

He's Kazushi's hero too!

Ichiro Suzuki is a major league baseball player at Seattle Mariners. He is a top batter, right field in this team. He runs fast, and can throw a bullet ball. But, when it comes to Ichiro, we can't help thinking about his batting. But he couldn't always hit a lot, from when he was young.
He was born in Toyoyama town in Aichi Prefecture. Now he is 175cm, 75kg. But when he was little and slight, most people thought he was not strong enough to play baseball, because of his physical problem. But he didn't mind that! He had the confidence to be a pro baseball player! He went to a batting center with his father most everyday from 3rd grade. He practiced against fast balls there. So, the source of his batting was cultivated at the batting center.
And he went to a Meiden high school. The school is famous for baseball. He improved his baseball skill there. By the grace of his efforts, he could be a pro baseball player. But it wasn't easy to be successful. He joined Oryx Blue Wave as a pitcher. But the coach put him in as a batter, because he had a sense of batting. So, he changed from pitcher to batter. But, he wasn't active and wandered around the first and second leagues.
But he got lucky. In the second league, he achieved his own batting form with a good coach, Kawamura. And the manager or first league changed his name, from to . By grace of these two things, he achieved success in the first league.
In 2004, he broke the world record for the number of hits for a year. For 84 years, nobody could break that record. But Ichiro did it!! And apart from that, he broke a lot of records.
So Ichiro is one of the best baseball players in the world. And he contributed to Japan's victory at the WBC this year. Thanks to this result, many people are getting to be interested in baseball. He is like a missionary at baseball!!