As he walked to the plate for his first at-bat with his new team -- which fate dictated would come against his old team -- a sense of worry came over Ichiro Suzuki.

Hours earlier, he had just been traded to the Yankees from the Mariners, where he spent more than 11 years as a franchise icon. He wondered how that first at-bat would play out until it was actually time to hit.

"I really didn't think anything," he said, through an interpreter. "Nothing came to me."