Gordon bids Ichiro farewell with full-page ad

SEATTLE -- How do you say thank you to a man who has been cheered by an entire country and embraced by everyone in baseball over the past week? For Dee Gordon, the answer was to post a full-page advertisement in the Seattle Times on Thursday with a heart-felt message to his long-time friend and teammate, Ichiro Suzuki.

“I didn’t think a tweet or Instagram post was appropriate for this occasion, so I wanted to do it the right way and tell you how much I appreciate you as loudly as possible,” Gordon wrote in the lengthy note. “Without your friendship and guidance -- and if you never told me your secrets [don’t worry, bro, I’ll never tell!] -- there wouldn’t be a batting champion named Dee Gordon.

“Love you, bro! You’re a part of my life forever. I hope you enjoy retirement. You better come hit with me on off-days because I’m definitely gonna miss that -- and miss having you around to lean on.”

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Gordon played three seasons with Ichiro with the Marlins and the past two with the Mariners. The two shared the common bond of being the increasingly rare players who build their games around speed and bat control.

Gordon had tears in his eyes when Ichiro came off the field the final time in Tokyo last Thursday and embraced all of his teammates. Those emotions were still welling when he decided to pen his message to the retiring 45-year-old this week.

“One night I was kind of jet-lagged and still up, and I texted my agent in the middle of the night telling him I wanted to do it,” Gordon said. “I was just chilling at home watching TV and I thought, 'This is what I’m going to do.'”

He texted his agent, Nate Heisler, an outline of what he wanted to say and Heisler helped put the finishing touches on the note.

“It came from the heart, but my agent definitely edited it,” Gordon said with a smile. “My texting vocabulary … I text like I talk sometimes, so it ain’t perfect English every time.”

Using a full-page ad to deliver his words was the unique part.

“It’s something that came to me,” Gordon said. “Honestly, I didn’t think writing up an Instagram post or something would be meaningful enough and he probably wouldn’t be able to see it. I thought this was a little over the top, so I texted him and said, ‘Hey, I did something and I apologize if you don’t like it. But I did it.' And he liked it, surprisingly.”

Gordon feels blessed to have had a front-row seat to the final five years of Ichiro’s career and the chance to befriend a man he admired so much even before they became teammates.

“People don’t know him that much as a person,” Gordon said. “I was one of the few lucky ones to get to know him as a person.”

Gordon said he’s sorry to lose Ichiro as a teammate, but “as long as he’s happy, I’m happy.” And there was no denying the impressive fashion in which Ichiro walked away from the game with the celebration in Tokyo in front of his home fans.

“Pretty cool way [to retire],” Gordon said. “I’ll be honest with you. The way it was going, I didn’t think he was ever going to walk away.”