Had your fill of Andro-bingeing power hitters? Bored with home run trots that drag on longer than the Academy Awards? Looking for a little variety in your baseball?

Then be sure to be in front of the TV when the Japanese right fielder with one name steps to the plate.

	Ichiro has 19 hits over his last seven games through May 18.

Ichiro took a 22-game hitting streak into this weekend's series between the first-place Mariners and the three-time defending champion Yankees, and he smacked three more Friday night to extend to 23 the longest hitting streak in the majors this season and the longest string of hits in Seattle since Kurt Cobain was alive. It also matches his longest streak in Japan. "I don't remember how I felt, so I can't compare now to then," he said Thursday.

With a .371 average and a majors-leading 69 hits, Ichiro not only is the leading candidate for the league's rookie of the year award, he also is a baseball rarity. In a Creatine era, this trim, singles-hitting outfielder is providing baseball with the most exciting at-bats outside of Wrigley Field.

He even makes a foul ball interesting.

"The pitches he fouls off are amazing," second baseman Bret Boone said. "He'll have two strikes on him and he'll get a breaking ball just off the plate and he'll look like he's running to first base but he'll still get just enough of the ball to foul it off. And then he'll hit a grounder and beat it out. It's funny to watch. Where there's a will, there's a way."

There are better hitters. There are more powerful hitters. There are more proven hitters. But no one hits them where they ain't more often than Ichiro. He is the master of the seeing-eye grounder, the bloop over the infield, and on occasion, the line drive into the gap.

	“	Outfields can't cheat in though, because if they do, then he'll hit a rocket into the gap and it's a triple. ”
		— John Olerud

Consider the hit the Mariners call "The Wedge."

That was two weeks ago when Pedro Martinez jammed Ichiro with a two-strike fastball on the fists only to see Ichiro get enough of the pitch to bloop it just over Martinez's head. The ball landed midway between the mound and second base and virtually stopped dead, leaving no fielder with any prayer for a play. Ichiro ran to first with an easy hit while his teammates and opponents shook their heads.

"It was like a little drop shot over the bunker that checks up on the green," Seattle pitcher Paul Abbott said.

"That one had us cracking up in the dugout," batting coach Gerald Perry said. "It looks like he hits the ball exactly where he wants to."

Maybe he does.

"We were in Toronto last weekend," first baseman John Olerud said, "and the hit-and-run was on, and the second baseman went to cover the bag because they figured he would hit the ball the other way. Instead he pulled the ball right into the hole the second baseman left."

Ichiro seldom strikes out (11 times) and walks even less (just five times), but almost every time he hits the ball on the ground there is a close play at first. He leads the majors with 17 infield hits and 110 grounders. Outfields can't cheat in though, Olerud said, because if they do, "then he'll hit a rocket into the gap and it's a triple."

His three hits Thursday against the White Sox were typical: a solid single to center, an infield chopper off the plate and a flare just beyond second baseman Ray Durham's reach. He also nearly beat out another grounder for a fourth hit.

Ichiro moves his feet in the box so much that he's striding toward first base as he makes contact. "He does it more with two strikes, because he's just trying to put the ball in play and beat it out," Perry said.

"It seems like he's halfway down the line before he hits it," Abbott said. "I'm watching his swing, breaking it down and analyzing it, and hoping my kids aren't watching this and trying to copy him.

"He reminds me of a ping-pong player the way he hits the ball. The way he moves and he has such quick hands. It's ridiculous."

Jim Caple is a Senior Writer for ESPN.com.