This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. Reporter/Producer Josh Kirshenbaum pinch-hit on this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
As the Rays prepared for their second game against the Mariners in Seattle on Aug. 9, every locker in the visitors’ clubhouse at T-Mobile Park had Tampa Bay’s navy jersey hanging prominently. Every locker, that is, except Brandon Lowe's.
Instead, his space -- one of the three larger lockers designated for more veteran position players and clubhouse leaders -- had a Mariners jersey hanging in front. More specifically, it was Ichiro’s No. 51.
The Rays’ trip to the Pacific Northwest coincided with the weekend that the Mariners celebrated their former star, who became the first Japanese player to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame last month. It was one of the highest-attended series Seattle’s had all season, highlighted by a ticketed crowd of 45,249 who piled into T-Mobile Park an hour early to watch Ichiro have his number retired.
Add to that number more than a couple of Rays who were excited to be there for the event. There was Drew Rasmussen, the Puyallup, Wash., native who, like most people his age in the area, called Ichiro his “childhood hero.” And there was Lowe, born and raised on the other side of the country but still an avid fan.
“He was called up in ‘01; I think I was in first or second grade at the time,” Lowe said. “If you’re watching baseball then, you were watching Ichiro do what he was doing. The legacy he’s left, the records he’s left speak for itself.”
So going into the weekend -- with Seattle being the second stop of the Rays’ marathon four-city, 12-game road trip -- the Tampa Bay second baseman knew he needed to get his hands on a jersey for his home collection.
“I have a basement back home that I’m trying to fill up with the jerseys of some of the greatest baseball players I can think of, and Ichiro was pretty high up on the list,” he said.
Asked about his favorite memory of Ichiro -- whose .300 average against Tampa Bay was his lowest against any AL opponent in his 14 years in Seattle, by the way -- Lowe had an instant response:
“The 262-hit season is one that’s always in my mind,” he said. “I still have such a hard time grasping 262 hits in a single season. That’s absurd.”
For his part, Lowe provided the first fireworks after Ichiro’s speech that night, homering in the top of the first inning, though the Rays would go on to lose the game. The eight-year veteran is having a resurgent campaign at the plate, with a .272 average that would be a career high if the season ended today to go along with 24 home runs, his most in a season since 2021. Over the course of the Rays’ two-week road trip, he hit .279 (12-for-43) with five homers and a double for a .949 OPS.
And now, his jersey collection back home has another key installment. He will, though, have to wait for his chance to talk to Ichiro himself.
“I don’t even know what I would say to him, to be really honest,” Lowe said. “ ... Hopefully I get to play for a little bit longer, and one of these days I get to meet him."