1. The Athletic has a new feature up on Ichiro's career and one particular story stands out in a major way. The Mariners star, as recently as last year, was unfamiliar with a certain Patriots quarterback. From the story:
"One morning in spring training, 2017, he was in the coaches’ room looking at his cell phone text messages. Ichiro told the coaches about one message he had just received from a number he didn’t recognize. The guy said he’d gotten Ichiro’s number from Alex Rodriguez, and that he wanted to come meet him and study his stretching system.