Before entering Hall of Fame, Ichiro talks about his greatest baseball moments

SEATTLE — Ichiro wasn’t sure he would last a year in the major leagues.

Anger helped him deliver what became known as the “Star Wars” throw.

He wished the third-base coach had given him the stop sign before finishing off the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, would love to talk hitting with Hall of Famer Rod Carew and doesn’t consider himself close to Pete Rose when it comes to being baseball’s hit king.

Those were just some of the things Ichiro talked about through a translator during a 22-minute sit-down interview with Bob Costas that will air Saturday at 4 p.m. on the MLB Network, one day before Ichiro is inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which will also air on MLB Network.

As for being the first Japanese player to be elected to the Hall of Fame, Ichiro is still processing that.

“I really haven’t come to a conclusion of really what that means,” Ichiro said to Costas. “It’s something that it might take some years to you know … it might come and it might even come after I pass. But there is the fact that I am the first, but what it means … we’ll see when that comes.”

It did not take long for Ichiro to become a star in his first season in the major leagues in 2001 with the Mariners, joining them at 27 after starring for nine seasons in Japan’s top professional league.

“I didn’t know that I could last a year, and people around me didn’t know that I could last a year, but our team did well,” Ichiro said. “We won 116 games, I was able to contribute and I was able to just take those little steps every single day. And, you know, two or three years, I was able to do well, and in the fourth year get (a record) 262 hits. It just took little steps, little steps along the way. And look at me now, I’m a Hall of Famer.”

Early in that first season with the Mariners, the Athletics’ Terrence Long tested Ichiro’s arm in right field, trying to go from first base to third base on a single to right field. Ichiro threw a laser to third base — legendary Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus said it was “something out of Star Wars" — and Long was out on a play that has been shown over and over throughout the years.

“I didn’t start that game, and so I was kind of frustrated a little bit; I had that emotion,” Ichiro said. “Then when I went out to the field, I was pelted with ice and coins from the fans in Oakland … so I was really flustered, and anger was probably inside of me. So when I got that perfect bounce and I was able to make that throw, probably anger had a lot to do with that throw.

“It was early in the career, so it was great that I was able to show what I can do, but it also made people not run on me anymore, and so I didn’t have many opportunities to do that.”

Ichiro, who won 10 Gold Gloves, made many memorable plays. If the Star Wars throw isn’t No. 1, climbing the wall to make what is referred to as the Spiderman catch to rob the Angels’ Garret Anderson of a home run in 2005, might be.

“I was actually anticipating him hitting it there,” Ichiro said. “So I actually played two steps further back than I usually do, and I actually was kind of imagining in my head going up on the wall and catching it. And so that was something that I had envisioned.

“And then it happened, I was imagining catching the ball on my left side, but it ended up being caught further out. It was really close from becoming a play that was going to be something terrible, but it became something great.”

In 2007, Ichiro became the first player to hit an inside-the-park home run in the All-Star Game, when the ball took an odd bounce off the center-field wall. By the time Ken Griffey Jr., who was a Cincinnati Red at the time, tracked it down, it was too late.

While running the bases, Ichiro had preferred it be a triple.

“First off, that ball, it didn’t go out of the park so I was actually like really down, because I thought it was out,” Ichiro said. “And as it went over Junior’s head, and it hit that wall and it bounced the other way, I thought I have a chance at an inside-the-park (homer).

“Before the All-Star Game — I think we were in Oakland — I fouled a ball off my foot, and so my big toe was hurting at that time. So as I was rounding third, I was hoping that the third-base coach would put up the stop sign, because I was actually kind of hurting. And so that’s what I remember.”

Costas asked Ichiro if he could have hit 30 home runs a season, as many have said he could have done had he focused on that.

“It’s really tough to talk about, because, you know, it’s in the past, and we can never do it,” Ichiro said. “… There’s so many others that hit 30 home runs. I wanted to get as many hits as possible, and that’s something that I tried hard at and worked hard on and so that was my game. It’s really tough to talk about (hitting 30 home runs a season), because it just wasn’t my thing.”

Ichiro finished with 117 home runs in the major leagues, 25 more than Rod Carew — a hit machine from 1967-85 — had in his Hall of Fame career. The two played similar styles and that is why Carew is the Hall of Famer Ichiro would like to meet the most.

“It would be awesome to be able to talk to him about hitting and share our hitting ideas and really talk about things that I probably can’t talk to players today about, just because of the fact it’s different,” Ichiro said.

Ichiro had 4,367 professional hits — 3,089 in MLB and 1,278 in Japan — surpassing the 4,256 Rose had in MLB.

“You can’t put my name and Pete Rose’s name together as the Hit King,” Ichiro said. “I did something in Japan and then something in the States, and combined, it became somewhat close to Pete Rose’s name. But I really feel like I’m not a player that you can put my name up with Pete Rose. I’m very honored, very honored that people put my name next to his like that.”

Regardless, Ichiro was just one vote shy from being a unanimous selection to enter the Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility. He said it’s like being a rookie again getting to join the greats in Cooperstown, N.Y.

And while he spoke in Japanese with Costas, Ichiro said Sunday that he will give his induction speech in English, one that Mariner fans will likely remember for a long time.