An Interesting Ichiro Quote

[M's_Fan]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._ichiro31.html

The event's stated mission was to support the recovery efforts for victims of last year's earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan. It's a cause that is significant to Ichiro; he donated the equivalent of $1.2 million to the victims in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe last March. But when the publishers of the program asked Ichiro if the cause would motivate him to elevate his play during the series, it did not elicit the flowery response they likely anticipated.

"A professional athlete can't make something like that the goal of his performance," Ichiro explained. "It's almost become cliché to say you're going to try and play in a way that inspires people, or you're going to give people courage through your performance, or you're going to touch people's hearts with your play. I think it's impossible to play with such things as your goal because we are not the arbiters of whether the people watching ultimately reap those feelings from our performance. We just aren't. Those feelings can be the result of our play, but they can't be the motivation for it. We can't will fans to feel those things from our play. Performers who make such things their goal aren't in control of whether they accomplish it. I realize that and, therefore, I refrain from such thinking."