Which is more amazing?
(a) An inside the park home run in the All-Star game
(b) Ichiro hitting the inside the park home run and scoring standing up
(c) Ichiro loafing out of the batter's box
(d) All three combined.
The answer is (d). As rare as inside the park home runs are, I imagine it is even more rare for the hitter to score standing up. Ichiro apparently thought he hit it out of the park, though, because his first few steps were a home run trot. And he still scored standing up!
By the way, the lifetime leader in inside-the-park home runs belongs to Jesse Burkett, with a whopping 56. Of course, he played at the turn of the century. Next on the list are Sam Crawford, Ty Cobb, Tommy Leach, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, Jake Beckley, Rogers Hornsby, Jake Daubert and Edd Roush. It says something that Hornsby is the most recent player on the list, and he retired 70 years ago.
UPDATE: In the post game sort-of-interview, Ichiro said he thought he hit the ball out of the park.
