Mariners legend Ichiro makes history with Hall of Fame election
Jan 21, 2025, 3:28 PM | Updated: 4:57 pm
Ichiro Suzuki broke a barrier when he entered the major leagues with the Seattle Mariners. It’s only fitting that 24 years later, he will break another as he enters Cooperstown.
The first Japanese position player to play in MLB is now the first Japanese player to gain admittance to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
For Japan, Ichiro is more than just a baseball star
Ichiro fell just short of more history, with one lone voter keeping him from becoming the first position player with a perfect, 100% unanimous vote into the Hall. Only former New York Yankees closing pitcher Mariano Rivera has reached a 100% Baseball Hall of Fame vote.
Ichiro broke a barrier simply when he joined the Mariners in 2001 by virtue of being the first Japanese hitter ever in the big leagues. But he not only proved that a Japanese hitter could hack it in the majors – seriously, that was a question at the time – but he did so by arriving fully formed as the best player in the game. He won both the American League Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in his debut season, in the process helping the Mariners tie the MLB record with 116 wins in the regular season.
The barrier of the Pacific wasn’t just broken by Ichiro. It was disintegrated, like something out of Star Wars.
With his given name on the back of his jersey rather than his family name, Ichiro rapped out 242 hits as a 27-year-old rookie, beginning a record streak of 10 consecutive seasons with 200 hits or more. That included a 2004 campaign where Ichiro finished with 262 hits, breaking George Sisler’s previously thought to be unbreakable record of 259 from 1920.
Ichiro retired in 2019 after 19 MLB seasons, and it was a clear first-ballot Hall of Fame career with 3,089 hits, a .311 batting average, two batting titles, three Silver Sluggers, and 10 All-Star Game appearances. But that’s not telling the whole Ichiro story.
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Before coming to America, Ichiro had already had a successful pro career in his home country with the Orix Blue Wave of Nippon Pro Baseball. Beginning at just 18 years old, he accumulated 1,278 hits with a .353 average over nine seasons in Japan.
When you put together Ichiro’s Japanese and American careers, you end up with a player unlike any other in baseball history. After all, his 4,367 combined hits is the all-time professional record, even more than MLB hit king Pete Rose’s 4,256.
Ichiro wasn’t just the single best hitter ever seen, however. He was a terror on the basepaths with 509 career MLB stolen bases (tied for 35th all-time), including a league-leading 56 in 2001. And his speed was also a weapon with countless infield hits as well as defensively in the outfield, where he combined it with a cannon for an arm that led to 10 Gold Gloves while with the Mariners.
After spending the first 11 1/2 years of his MLB career in Seattle, Ichiro was traded to the New York Yankees during the 2012 season, oddly enough during a series between the M’s and New York, making his Yankees debut a surreal experience for the fans at Safeco Field. He would spend 3 1/2 years with the Yankees, then three with the Miami Marlins before returning to the Mariners for a swan song. He appeared in 15 games for Seattle in 2018, then returned for a two-game, season-opening series in his home country of Japan in 2019, after which he retired for good.
In his 14 seasons for the Mariners, Ichiro finished at or near the top of several franchise lists. He ranks first in hits (2,542), batting average (.322), at-bats (7,907), triples (79), and stolen bases (438); second in games (1,861) and runs (1,181); and third in doubles (295) and total bases (3,292). And while he may no longer be on the roster, he remains with the franchise as Special Assistant to the Chairman and can be seen regularly working out with the team before games at T-Mobile Park – in uniform, giving it all he’s got.
Ichiro’s 99.7% voting percentage (393 out of 394) is third all-time behind only Rivera and Derek Jeter (99.7%, 396 out of 397). In fourth place is his former teammate, Ken Griffey Jr. (99.3%, 437 out of 440).
Ichiro will enter the Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 27 along with CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Dick Allen and Dave Parker. He is expected to be the third player to go into the Hall of Fame with a Seattle Mariners cap featured on his plaque, joining Griffey and another of his former teammates, Edgar Martinez.
Drayer: The remarkable journey of Ichiro Suzuki to baseball immortality