Putting Ichiro's on-field accomplishments in context. Plus: Judge avoids the worst
Good morning! If you hear any noise, it's just our newsletter bopping.
Sometime shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET today, Ichiro Suzuki goes into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Everyone has a favorite Ichiro story, and all of them are incredible.
Many who watched his batting practices insist that he could've hit 30 or 40 homers in a year if he wanted to, so impressive were his swing and routine. The stories of Ichiro's presence in the clubhouse — many collected in this fun Rustin Dodd story — are plentiful and legendary. You have probably seen the clip of Ichiro comparing the temperature of a particular Midwestern city to that of a rat in a wool sock, reducing Bob Costas practically to tears. If not, now you have. Remember the time he missed a unanimous Rookie of the Year honor by one media vote? It shouldn't have been that big a circus, but you can understand why it was: Ichiro was so cool that it was an affront not to maximally honor him.
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I've always found Ichiro tricky. It feels like describing him by leaning on his stats leaves too much meat on the bone. There have been similarly elite ballplayers but no similar characters, so how could anyone encapsulate him by reading his Baseball Reference page?
Well, let's do our best. You'll hear at Ichiro's induction about what a singular baseball person he is, but you'll read in The Pulse about what an outlier of a statistical career he had:
At the very least, Ichiro being 25th on the all-time hits list comically undersells how good he was at his job. They will never make one like this guy again.
Pogacar in line for fourth Tour win
Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar is set to seal his fourth Tour de France win this morning in Paris (or possibly already has, depending on when you're reading this), cementing him as the rider of his generation. The UAE Team Emirates star, 26, survived a brutal penultimate stage yesterdayand entered the final day, seen as mostly a formality, with a lead of more than four minutes over rival Jonas Vingegaard. The Athletic's Jacob Whitehead has more on how Pogacar dominated the 2025 Tour.
More news
📺 F1: Belgian Grand Prix
9 a.m. ET on ABC
I bring your attention to two good F1 stories from the past week: Madeline Coleman's interview with an unusually open Max Verstappenand Luke Smith giving voice to something I've noticed but had a hard time articulating: F1 principals now get sacked like soccer managers.
📺 Soccer: England vs. Spain
Noon ET on Fox
The women's Euros final is here, and it's a doozy: a rematch of the World Cup final two years ago, where Spain triumphed — but England is the defending European title holder. Both teams needed extra time to survive their semifinals. Appointment viewing. 🍿
📺 MLB: Mets at Giants
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7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Kodai Senga, pitching for New York, has thrown 80 and two-thirds innings and will almost certainly not qualify for the ERA title. His number is 1.79, though. Pretty good.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Years ago, Royals pitcher Gil Meche walked away from $12 million out of principle. What does he think about that decision now?
Chris Kamrani's powerful, tragic story on a former Utah football player who was posthumously found to have Stage 2 CTE after a tortuous, decade-plus-long decline. — Mark Cooper
I recently revisited the podcast 'Wind of Change,' which is a (sort of) investigation into the question of whether the CIA wrote The Scorpions' 'Wind of Change' to bring down the Soviet Union. I'm probably not selling it well, but it's real good. — Phil Hay
Chandler Rome captured the state of disbelief Nick Kurtz's parents werein after the A's rookie's historic performance Friday.
This small-serving microwave bread pudding recipe might change your life. — Torrey Hart
You can't understand how important it is to break in a little kid's glove so that ball perfectly caught doesn't just pop out and … meltdown. I got a glove wrap (it ain't bougie, here's Walmart at under five bucks) and man, it helps. — Chris Sprow
Should Jonathan Kuminga take the qualifying offer with the Warriors? Fred Katz breaks down the layers.
'College Football 26' online dynasty mode. I'm playing in a league with some friends/coworkers and it has been dynamite. Am I 0-1? Yes. Still great. — Chris Branch
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Terry Francona's excellent scoreboard video prank on Kevin Cash.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Kamrani's story mentioned above.
Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
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