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The Prince George Lomak Knights won the midget AA provincial championship on Sunday in Prince George with a suicide squeeze, one of the most legendary but riskiest tricks in baseball.

The Prince George Lomak Knights won the midget AA provincial championship on Sunday in Prince George with a suicide squeeze, one of the most legendary but riskiest tricks in baseball.

In a regular squeeze play, a far more common tactic, the baserunner on third base only breaks for home after seeing the batter successfully bunt the ball. In the suicide squeeze, the baserunner only waits until the pitcher starts the windup to the plate before starting to run. The batter has to lay down the bunt or else it's suicide for the baserunner, an easy out for the catcher, who has the ball in his mitt.

What made the suicide squeeze so special for the Knights was it was a walk-off win, meaning it was the last play of the game. Scott Walters, the baserunner on third base, represented the winning run in the final inning of a tie game with just one out. Matt Knight, a graduating player in his final at-bat in a Knights uniform, wasn't trying to hit a single or a deep fly ball to score Walter. He was trying to tap the ball a handful of feet in front of him.

The confidence Knights third base coach Jody Hannon had in both players to deliver under such a pivotal moment speaks volumes.

The ball only rolled a few feet off of Knight's bat but that's enough for a speedy player racing home. By the time the startled catcher jumped forward to retrieve the ball, Walters was already safe at home and the tournament championship belonged to the Knights.

To put the suicide squeeze in a broader context, the last time it was used for a walk-off win in Major League Baseball was in 2013. Most of the time, the suicide squeeze is used by a team already in the lead late in a close game but wanting insurance runs. The Toronto Blue Jays did one last year in that situation and the Atlanta Braves pulled it off in the seventh inning of Game 1 of the 1995 World Series.

Whether it's by teenagers or major leaguers, the suicide squeeze is a team play because it requires the baserunner and the batter to have faith in each other to hold up their end of the bargain.

Baseball is a team sport, which can bring out the best of players.

Ichiro Suzuki, the former Seattle Mariner and New York Yankee now playing for the Miami Marlins, recorded his 3,000th hit of his MLB career on Sunday, only the 30th man to ever reach that milestone. He is the holder of numerous MLB single-season and career records for hitting and base-stealing.

What's particularly impressive about Ichiro (he has gone by his first name for his entire career, including the back of his jersey) is he didn't move from Japan to the major leagues until he was 27. He's now 42, playing on a one-year contract worth $2 million but continuing to hit well and steal bases. If he had played his entire professional career in North America, he likely would have more than 4,000 MLB hits, a feat accomplished only by Ty Cobb and Pete Rose.

Ichiro was a pioneer, one of the first Japanese players to play in North America. In his first season in Seattle in 2001, he became the first player since Jackie Robinson, baseball's ultimate groundbreaker, to finish the season with the highest batting average and the most stolen bases.

Ichiro's place in Cooperstown, baseball's hall of fame, is assured, unlike one of his teammates from that 2001 Mariners squad.

Alex Rodriguez is arguably one of the best baseball players ever but he is tainted by performance-enhancing drugs and a suspension that cost him an entire season. On the same day Ichiro was hammering his 3,000th hit, a triple no less, the rarest of baseball hits, Rodriguez was announcing that he would play his final MLB game this Friday. Unlike Ichiro, who remains an active, contributing player at a bargain-basement salary, A-Rod at 41 is earning $21 million to hit a paltry .204, 112 points behind Ichiro.

Rodriguez is despised by both players and fans for his arrogance and selfishness while Ichiro is widely respected for his commitment to his teammates, his devotion to excellence and his passion for baseball history.

Congratulations to the Knights for their championship and to Ichiro for a stellar career and to both for so successfully epitomizing teamwork and the passion to win.