Former Marlins president David Samson is seemingly very sensitive about the perception of the franchise.
That’s why when Ichiro Suzuki broke out a zinger about the Marlins during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech on Sunday — which the Japanese legend delivered entirely in English — he was not as quick to laugh as the rest of the crowd in Cooperstown.
After thanking Samson and former Marlins exec Mike Hill for being in attendance, Ichiro said, “Honestly, when you guys called to offer me a contract for 2015, I had never heard of your team.”
“You hear your name come out and you’re just so overwhelmed with gratitude that your name comes out, and then you hear the Marlins joke. And I immediately thought, ‘My God, anything other than that,'” Samson said on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.” “You could just tell that people were gonna think that was serious, but it wasn’t. We won the World Series in ’03, folks. He was in his prime in ’03. He knew the Marlins, No. 1. No. 2, he faced us. We played against him. I then had it checked: He was like 8-for-40 against us (8-for-41). We had him dead to rights. Believe me, he keeps track of every at-bat.”
Samson, who worked for the Marlins from 2002-17 under owner and father-in-law Jeffrey Loria, explained why he believes Ichiro told the joke and why he wished the 10-time All-Star hadn’t said it.
“What I then realized is [Ichiro] wanted to let people know what a funny side he has to go with how important his message was during his speech, which I think is one of the most viral and best speeches I ever heard a Hall of Famer give,” Samson said.
“I had a little PTSD because the Marlins are the butt of people’s jokes, though we do have two world championships in our franchise history, and we’ve been to the playoffs recently, twice since COVID. So all of this talk that the Marlins are such a failure, I just don’t buy. But I think now people realize that of course Ichiro was joking.”
Ichiro began his MLB career in 2001 with the Mariners when he was 27 years old after a prolific run in Japan. He won AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors in his first season stateside.
That began a run of 10 straight seasons in which he recorded at least 200 hits and won a Gold Glove.
Ichiro is one of 33 players all-time to have at least 3,000 hits.