Part 2:

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Interviewer: Were there other times or games that particularly stuck out for you?

Ichiro: The Cuba game.

[Cut to Japan/Cuba game」

Narrator: After losing to Korea, a sudden-death match with Cuba. To Ichiro, it was becoming his worst memory.

[Cut to Ichiro popping out on attempted bunt with man on first.]

Narrator: A streak of 12 at bats, no hits.

Ichiro: It was a moment where I felt like my heart almost broke, where it was almost broken. My eyes met with coach's. [Looks almost tearful] That was, well, it really truly hurtful for me. I felt strangely pierced [pointing at chest].

Interviewer: What did you think?

Ichiro: The fact that coach was still using me was, I thought, a message. Of course, during that game, I didn't think "please substitute someone else for me". But if the game kept going like it did and I didn't put up any results, I thought I had to be ready for that.

[Cut to Ichiro walking, sitting in dugout.] Narrator: Ready, at this rate, to be taken off the field. And then another realization he kept to himself.

Interviewer: Before [the WBC] started, you used the phrase "Be ready" (kakugo). "Be ready and go for it".

Ichiro: I was ready for the fact that, if we couldn't win this tournament, I would never participate again. But from the middle, clearly, I was the reason. If we couldn't win, in this condition, I couldn't say "I want to participate" in the next tournament. I couldn't make that statement.

Interviewer: When you things aren't going how you want, what do you think yourself, what kind of actions do you take?

Ichiro: For those people who are watching, all I can do to show them something is to put up results. But, for those on the inside -- my teammates -- to show them something, even when I'm not putting up results, what becomes important is how should I be, how I must be.

[Cut to practice before Cuba game. ] Narrator: Days without results. Ichiro never looked down in front of his teammates. He got to the ballpark earlier than anyone, and kept swinging his bat. Then, during practice before the Cuba game, it happened.

Ichiro: (smiling) Hmm? Today all the fielders look a little different...

[Cut to practice before Cuba game.]

Narrator: What caught Ichiro's attention was his teammates' legs. They had their pants legs up showing their stockings.

Ichiro: I was looking at that.

Interviewer: Do you know the reason?

Ichiro: I didn't know it.

[Narrator: It's Ichiro's style.]

[Cut to Kataoka, a WBC teammate] Kataoka: Ichiro was having a hard time for a while, wasn't he. It was to pick him up.

[Cut to Kamei, a WBC teammate] Kamei: Honestly it was hard to speak to him, so with gestures, like pulling up our stockings.

[Cut to Uchikawa, a WBC teammate] Uchikawa: Kamei said, let's do it. So i said, alright, let's do it. Then bit by bit everyone said, you do it too, you do it too. in the end we even got Inaba to do it.

[Cut to Inaba, a WBC teammate] Inaba: Let's change the flow [they said]. So I said, I'll do it too. [Laughs]

Narrator: Starting with the three youngest players -- Kataoka, Uchikawa, Kamei -- to the oldest -- Kamei -- they sent a silent message to Ichiro. Then, that day's Cuba game, after the failed bunt, his fourth at bat. [Shows Ichiro getting a hit grounder past first] Narrator: His first hit in 13 at-bats. Then what was waiting for him...

Ichiro: They came up to me with with incredible, great smiles. Everyone said to me so happily, "nice batting!" and high-fived me. I was really happy about that. They were really smiling from, happy from the bottom of their hearts. That really, really supported me. Especially Yasu's [Kataoka's] face, I can't forget it.

Narrator: Ichiro didn't find out the message behind the stockings were to support him until after the WBC.

Ichiro: When I heard it, I was really moved. That my juniors were showing such kindness to me and trying to take care of me, I was a little bit surprised, and I was moved.

[Cut to Kawasaki Muneo and Ichiro standing in dugout]

Narrator: Teammates, in bad times and good times, they watched Ichiro's back.

Ichiro: At the end, [Kawasaki Muneo] sent me an e-mail. "I like you even more now than I did before," something to that effect. "The reason why is because you were so great when you weren't hitting," he wrote. "And your last hit, I will never forget as long as I live." It brought tears to my eyes. I half cried. Really, I wanted to send Muneo two years' worth of Yunkel [laughs]. [Yunkel is a health drink Ichiro endorses].

[Cut to Ichiro getting winning hit in 10th inning of championship game]

Narrator: The unforgettable last hit. But even then, Ichiro couldn't quite relax.

Ichiro: Even then I had a problem. Everyone was probably happy. If I looked at the dugout, I'd get emotional, so I couldn't look. I didn't look -- well I think the right way to put it is I couldn't look. So I looked at the replay, touched my helmet, at any rate I had to kill time [smiling].

[Cut to Ichiro standing on second base, touching his helmet.]

Narrator: At that time, the view in the dugout.

[Cut to teammates looking at Ichiro and cheering, dramatic music].

Interviewer: Did you feel that, because you had overcome difficulty you had achieved something special

Ichiro: I didn't feel confidence because Japan won and in the end it was a good result. I felt confidence in the way I was until that point. And now I think there's probably nothing scarier that will come up.