The Education of Ichiro - Part 3

Third in a four-part series

The BlueWave

TOKYO — Orix’s pint-sized manager Shozo Doi believed in what was known as the tottei seido (apprenticeship system), long evident in many areas of Japanese society from small factories to large corporations and government offices. To Doi, tottei seido meant baseball rookies were expected to endure a certain amount of suffering and should not be allowed to experience too much success too early.

Doi liked to cite the case of his former teammate on the Yomiuri Giants, Sadaharu Oh, the man who had hit 868 career home runs, a world record. Oh struggled hard in the minor leagues during his first two or three years in the pros. That kind of tempering had built character, Doi would say, which, in turn, helped Oh develop into a great batting star.

Thus, after Ichiro, in his first season as a professional, had led the Japanese minor leagues in batting with a .366 average in 58 games and compiled a .253 average in 40 games with the parent team, Doi returned him to the farm club at the beginning of the following year.