Ichiro Will Kill You For Ratings

The Ichiro who plays for the Seattle Mariners is quiet, effusive and, if last year can be believed at all, rather bored-looking most of the time.

The Ichiro who goes back to Japan in the offseason? His lifelong dream is to play a murderer on a Japanese murder mystery show. He realized that dream last night, appearing as a vengeful brother in the popular program "Tamara." Our spy in Japan — our Mata Hari, if you will — tells us:

in this evening's offering of the japanese colombo detective, tamara, ichiro, appearing as himself, intervenes in a blackmail against his brother and murders the blackmailer. clever and obviously a play for a post baseball career opportunity for our lad. he performs credibly, even playing himself.

You see, that's our favorite part. It's not just that he desperately wanted to play a murderer ... it's that he wanted to play himself playing the murderer. Maybe Kobe should try this.

TV's Digital Future Gets One Year Closer [The Yomiuri Shimbun]

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