Only two years before, Nike marketed baseball with an unfortunate slogan: “Chicks dig the long ball.” Everything was about home runs. The game’s steroid era was at its peak, still a year away from a scandal that would expose sluggers’ muscles as chemically gained. Ichiro, who essentially retired from playing at the age of 44 on Thursday, cast a diminutive figure in that time of giants. The outfielder who appeared too small to survive a league bloated on steroids was baseball’s best player in 2001. He was the superstar who did not have to turn his body into a bloated, cartoonish replica of a muscle man.

Source: The Guardian May 05, 2018 09:00 UTC