"Baseball Is Just Baseball": The Understated Ichiro: An Unauthorized Collection Compiled by David Shields [Paperback]

David Shields (Author), cover illustration by James Hunt (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2001

Ichiro Suzuki, the rookie All-Star right fielder for the Seattle Mariners, has the sports world transfixed. Author David Shields was at first entranced by Ichiro's smart, subtle play--just what the Mariners and Seattle needed. Then he was entranced by what Ichiro said--his smart, subtle words. The result is Baseball Is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro, a 120-page quote book of Ichiro in his own words. This selection of quotations takes the reader from Ichiro's decision to play for the Mariners to spring training to the regular season and up to the All-Star Break. It's a fan's book, a wisdom book, life-lessons for kids, for baseball fans, and for wisdom-seekers alike. Shields says that "Ichiro seems to me to 'get' life, to be in the groove, be in the moment, to have the secret. He mixes Zen distance with Zen focus. According to the Chinese aphorism, 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'; Ichiro is very good at focusing on each step."
Experience reality rather than your expectation of reality. Believe in yourself. Don't take yourself seriously but find an activity to be passionate about and take that activity very seriously. Don't buy the hype. Dissolve hate into love. Care more about the process than the product. Find joy in the seeking itself. Such are some of the simple but profound, powerful ideas embodied in this prize of a little book--a document of not only a popular athlete but an impressive human being. In just the first half of his rookie year in the majors, Ichiro has fully captured the imagination of fans in Seattle, Japan, and everywhere. We've certainly not seen the end of his great run; as Ichiro himself said: "I'm planning to turn on the power after the All-Star break."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anyone with even a passing interest in baseball can't help but look on in amazement at the 2001 Seattle Mariners. After losing heavy hitters Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez in back-to-back seasons, the Mariners have gone on to play "a new ... beautiful brand of team baseball." Mariners' rookie right fielder Ichiro Suzuki--who "like Madonna or Cher or Pelé, went only by his first name," as author David Shields writes in the introduction to his compilation Baseball Is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro--is the first Japanese position player to play in the majors.

There's an exhilarating fascination surrounding the young, sphinxlike All-Star and the global audience that tunes in to watch him snag home-runs-in-the-making from the sky. A fixture of baseball highlight reels, he's the first rookie ever to draw the most overall votes for the 2001 All-Star Game (held at Seattle's Safeco Field). Ichiromania even inspired fans to camp out overnight for a chance to claim a bobblehead doll cast in his likeness. Ichiro is much more than Japan's version of Michael Jordan--he's a cultural phenomenon (it's reported that Ichiro's the most recognizable person in Japan, with the emperor running a distant second).

Author David Shields is no stranger to the Seattle sports scene. He chronicled the 1994-95 season of the Seattle SuperSonics in his critically acclaimed book Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season. Shields, too, was swept up by Ichiro's "smart, subtle play" and humble persona, and compiled this collection of Ichiro quotations. The slim volume is packed with elegant wisdom, unexpected observations, and a refreshing sense of optimism from No. 51. Shields wonders, "Was I trying to impart philosophic significance to simple athletic excellence? Maybe the words acquired a lyrical glamour as they got translated from Japanese to English?"

When Ichiro was asked to analyze a particularly acrobatic catch, he replies: "It was a fly ball; I caught it."

On why he hasn't gotten into any arguments with major league umpires: "So far nothing has bothered me."

Individually, Ichiro's "haunting aphorisms" possess the beautiful complexity of Zen koans; together they read like The Tao of Ichiro. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Review

"Baseball Is Just Baseball is an ethereal joy unto itself." --James Norton, Flak Magazine

"This book is deliciously wonderful. It looks nice, it feels nice, and it is filled with nice things."--Powells.com

"There's a scene in Downtown 81, wherein a hooker asks Jean-Michel Basquiat if he'd 'like to go out.' Basquiat replies, 'I'm already out.'...If, like me, you [find this remark] funny and clever, then you'll probably dig Shields's little book."--Mike Seely, Tablet

"Shields has located a charming narrative inside the roar of Ichiro Mania."--James Martin, FFWD Magazine

"Through his introduction and quote selection, Shields turns Ichiro's comments into Eastern wisdom, revealing a person who values Zen qualities such as simplicity and harmony and who revels in challenge, not achievement." --ESPN.com Insider

"David Shields's. . . . sense of postmodern irony is so advanced that I cannot be sure whether or not he is serious." --Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times

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Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: TNI Books; 1st edition (August 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967870313
• ISBN-13: 978-0967870311
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,760,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Shields is the author of twelve books, including Reality Hunger (Knopf, 2010), which was named one of the best books of the year by more than thirty publications. GQ called it "the most provocative, brain-rewiring book of 2010"; the New York Times called it "a mind-bending manifesto." His previous book, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Knopf, 2008), was a New York Times bestseller. His other books include Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity, winner of the PEN/Revson Award; and Dead Languages: A Novel, winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Yale Review, Village Voice, Salon, Slate, McSweeney's, and Utne Reader; he's written reviews for the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Inquirer. His work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Shields has received a Guggenheim fellowship, two NEA fellowships, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award, a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. He now lives with his wife and daughter in Seattle, where he is the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington. Since 1996 he has also been a member of the faculty in Warren Wilson College's low-residency MFA Program for Writers, in Asheville, North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Hit, October 4, 2001

By 

Gary S. Beckwith (Yokosuka, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: "Baseball Is Just Baseball": The Understated Ichiro: An Unauthorized Collection Compiled by David Shields (Paperback)

When Ichiro Suzuki signed with the Seattle Mariners, NHK Television, Japan's equivalent to PBS, in an unprecedented move, negotiated to broadcast not a few, as is the norm, but ALL of the Mariners games in 2001. (Even Hideo Nomo, a local hero in his own right, who went to the LA Dodgers, didn't receive this much broadcast coverage.) Now the two most watched baseball teams in the Land of the Rising Sun are the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants and the Seattle Mariners.

As a long-time resident of Japan I have watched Ichiro make behind-the-back catches since he was in high school. I was amazed when, during one of the All-Star games (they play a series), Ichiro shifted from the outfield to the pitchers' mound and threw like he did such a thing every day.

While friends and I attend a few games a season, I'm just not a big baseball fan...until Ichiro plays on TV. After-work cocktails with "the boys" more often than not starts with someone asking, "Did you see what Ichiro did today?" Expletive-deleted comments are usually centered around "unbelievable!" Now these sessions include "Baseball is Just Baseball".

Ichiro is a hero to all of us here in Japan and this book shows, beyond the remarkable playing skills, why. In a time when big bats are usually accompanied by big mouths, Ichiro shows the world that it just doesn't have to be that way.

Great reading and here's hoping David Shields can put out a new volume every year.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Rookie's MVB, August 24, 2001

By 

Brett R. Winn (Walla Walla, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Baseball Is Just Baseball": The Understated Ichiro: An Unauthorized Collection Compiled by David Shields (Paperback)

I have never been a 'die-hard' baseball fan till this year when Ichiro stepped up to the plate. He put the fun back into baseball. Thanks to David Shields we now have an idea of just how much fun Ichiro is having as a baseball player. This book of Ichiro's quotes on baseball- from lighthearted and whimsical to thought-provoking words of wisdom- can be applied to our everyday life. This is a must-have book for any baseball fan. You'll want to share this one with your friends.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stocking stuffer, November 21, 2001

By 

Hunter B. Williams "hunterw" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: "Baseball Is Just Baseball": The Understated Ichiro: An Unauthorized Collection Compiled by David Shields (Paperback)

What a terrific way to find out about the inscrutable superstar! His batting average is matched by his efficiency with language. Even my 3-year old son enjoys the short quips in this book.