Ichiro Suzuki

Baseball Player

• Born: October 22, 1973
• Place of Birth: Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

SPORT: Baseball

Early Life

Ichiro Suzuki was born October 22, 1973, the second son of Nobuyuki Suzuki, who named him Ichiro, which means “first boy.” Nobuyuki, who played baseball in high school, began teaching Ichiro the game at an early age. By three years old, Ichiro was playing with a small bat and ball, and he started playing for a local baseball club when he was eight. The practice honed his skills in every area of the game and soon his talent began attracting attention. The prestigious Aikodai Meiden Koko High School baseball team recruited him to be both an outfielder and a pitcher. In high school, Ichiro played in Japan’s national high school tournament. During his time in high school he proved himself a formidable hitter, batting .502 with only ten strikeouts, and a threat on the basepaths with 131 steals.

The Road to Excellence

After high school, Ichiro was passed by in the first rounds of Japan's 1991 professional draft because he was relatively short and lightweight. However, in the fourth round, he was selected by the Orix Blue Wave, whose pitching coachJim Colbornwas a former Major League Baseball (MLB) player for the Seattle Mariners. Even though Colborn was the pitching coach and not the manager, Ichiro’s father asked Colborn to look out for Ichiro. The relationship between Colburn and the young player would turn out to be instrumental in eventually getting Ichiro to the Mariners.

During his first couple of seasons with the Blue Wave, Ichiro went back and forth between the major and minor leagues. Ichiro played with the Blue Wave for nine years, earning seven batting titles and three Most Valuable Player (MVP). In 1994 he set a Japanese baseball record by getting 210 hits for the season. In 1997 he had 216 at bats without a strikeout. As his career progressed, Ichiro became a media sensation in Japan. Fans and the media followed him everywhere. Because of this, when he married Yumiko Fukushima the couple had to fly to Los Angeles in order to have a private ceremony. MLB teams in the United States were beginning to notice Ichiro as well. This was partly due to pitcher Hideo Nomo, who demonstrated that Japanese players could find success in the MLB. Ichiro also participated in exhibition games against MLB All-Stars, fueling his own interest in playing in the United States.

By the end of the 1990s the MLB and the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league had developed the posting system to regulate the transfer of players from Japan to the United States. Following the 2000 season, the Seattle Mariners of the American League successfully bid over $13 million for the rights to offer Ichiro a contract. This was the first high-profile use of the posting system. After negotiations he signed with the team for three years and $14 million.

The Emerging Champion

Because he was the first major Japanese position player to transition from Japanese baseball to the MLB, many were skeptical that Ichiro would make a major impact. Despite his track record, some scouts felt that his small size—five feet nine inches and 160 pounds—would make him powerless against MLB pitchers. Other detractors believed his arm strength would not be sufficient for throwing from the outfield, and that he would not be able to withstand the longer MLB season. However, Ichiro surprised everyone with his dominant play in his first season. He had a twenty-three-game hitting streak, a .350 batting average, and 242 hits for the season. These achievements won him the 2001 American Leauge MVP and Rookie of the Year awards. Ichiro was only the second player in MLB history to receive both awards in the same season. The Mariners had a historic season that year, winning 116 games and completing the best regular season since the 1906 Chicago Cubs.

Ichiro remained a huge star in Japan, where people tuned in every morning to watch his Mariners games live. Many Japanese tourists as well as Japanese Americans began visiting Seattle to see him play for his new team—so many in fact, that the Mariners began including signs in Japanese around the ballpark. Ichiro also changed the way people viewed the game. For the previous decade American baseball fans had lived to see home runs. With Ichiro, fans were riveted by his speed in beating out a short hit, stealing a base, or making a difficult defensive play. This "small ball" style was made possible by his outstanding ability to hit for contact and high batting average.

Continuing the Story

Ichiro continued his excellent play with the Mariners, winning eight Gold Glove Awards for excellent defense and two Silver Slugger Awards for outstanding offense. In 2004 he had arguably his best MLB season when he broke George Sisler’s eighty-four-year-old single-season record for hitsfinishing with 262. In addition to breaking the Sisler record, Ichiro had the best batting average of his career, finishing the season at .372. He also broke the record for most singles in a seasonset in 1898with 225. In three months during the 2004 season Ichiro had more than fifty hits, including consecutive months in July and August.

In 2006, Ichiro played in the World Baseball Classic for the Japanese team, the eventual champions. He was named the MVP for the 2007 All-Star game, in which he had three hits, including the first inside-the-park home run in the history of the All-Star competition. That same year he signed a five-year extension with the Mariners and tallied his 1,500th hitreaching that plateau faster than all but two other players in MLB history. In 2008 he collected more than two hundred hits for the eighth consecutive season, tying a record set by Willie Keeler from 1894 to 1901. He then broke that record in 2009 and added to the streak in 2010, which also saw him tie Pete Rose's overall record for seasons with two hundred or more hits.

In 2011, Ichiro begin to decline from his years of steady production, marking the first time in his MLB career that he finished a season with a batting average below .300 and did not win a Gold Glove Award. The next season also saw his years as a Mariners fan favorite come to an end when he was traded to the New York Yankees in July 2012. The Mariners had been struggling for several years and Ichiro's contract was due to expire, so he asked to be traded to allow Seattle to rebuild and give him a chance to join a more competitive team. The Yankees were his first choice, and he agreed to accept a limited role and a low batting order spot in order to play for them. The trade sparked something of a resurgence, as Ichiro hit well to wrap up the season and help propel the Yankees into the playoffs. The Yankees would eventually lose the American League Championship Series (ALCS) to the Detroit Tigers.

During the offseason Ichiro signed a two-year contract to remain with the Yankees. Although his numbers continued to decline, he remained a dependable veteran presence on the field and at the plate. In August 2013 he recorded the 4,000th hit of his professional careera mark previously reached by only six other players. In July 2014 he surpassed 2,800 hits in the MLB. Following the 2014 season Ichiro signed a one-year deal with the Miami Marlins, and in 2015 he reached 2,900 MLB hits and also had the opportunity to pitch an inning of relief in the last game of the regular season. He resigned with the Marlins on another one-year deal for 2016.

Though Ichiro's production was mixed during the 2016 season. He was largely relegated to a bench role, although he did reach an important milestone in August when he recorded his 3,000th MLB hit. He was just the thirtieth player to join the exclusive "3,000-hit club," widely seen as one of the greatest marks a hitter can reach. He was also the first Japanese player to do so, and only the fourth player not born in the mainland United States. His historic hit was a triple, further underscoring the game-changing combination of speed, power, and contact that characterized his career. He demonstrated this at the age of forty-two. Many sports pundits wondered what Ichiro's MLB statistics would look like had he entered the league earlier. All previous members of the 3,000-hit club began their major league careers at twenty-four or younger, while Ichiro was twenty-seven when he joined the MLB. When Ichiro's time playing in Japan is factored in, he owns more professional hits than Pete Rose, the official MLB record holder. During the 2016 season Ichiro expressed interest in playing until he turned fifty years old. The Mariners agreed to extend Suzuki's contract in both 2017 and 2018. In that year, Suzuki turned 44 years old and was the second-oldest player in the MLB. In May 2018, Suzuki moved from the Mariner's playing roster to the front office. He briefly returned to the dugout as a bench coach. He was inactive for the remainder of the years.

In 2019, Suzuki once again made the Mariner's Opening Day roster. Their first game of the season was played in Tokyo, Japan against the Oakland A's. Suzuki started the game. The next day, a final game was played in Tokyo which turned out to be Suzuki's last. At 45 years of age, Suzuki finally retired as an active player and returned to the Mariner's front office. Three years later in August 2022, Suzuki was inducted into the Seattle Mariner's Hall of Fame. In January 2024, Suzuki was announced as a candidate for a 2025 induction to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. 2025 would be the first year Suzuki is eligible for consideration, and many consider him a likely candidate for first ballot selection.

Summary

Ichiro Suzuki was the first Japanese position player to make an impact in Major League Baseball. His success inspired other Japanese position players, such as Hideki Matsui and Kazuo Matsui, to leave Japanese baseball to play in the United States. Ichiro also brought excitement through his "small ball" game during an era dominated by home-run hitting.

Bibliography

Jude, Adam. "‘Baseball and Seattle Have Never Left My Heart’: Ichiro a Hit during Mariners’ Hall of Fame Induction." The Seattle Times, www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/baseball-and-seattle-have-never-left-my-heart-ichiro-a-hit-during-mariners-hall-of-fame-induction. 27 Aug. 2022, Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

"Ichiro Suzuki." ESPN, 2024, www.espn.com/mlb/player/stats/‗/id/4570/ichiro-suzuki. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Ortiz, Jorge L. "Ichiro Suzuki: 'I Just Want to Play Baseball.'" USA Today, 9 May 2015, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/05/08/ichiro-suzuki-world-series-all-star-memories-3000-hits/70991758. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Price, S. L. “The Ichiro Paradox.” Sports Illustrated, 8 July 2002, pp. 50–55.

Thiel, Art. Out of Left Field: How the Mariners Made Baseball Fly in Seattle. Seattle, Sasquatch, 2003.

Trister, Noah. "Ichiro Suzuki Arrives on Next Year’s Hall of Fame Ballot; Sabathia and Hernandez Eligible Too." Associated Press, 24 Jan 2024, apnews.com/article/baseball-hall-of-fame-2025-ichiro-suzuki-1d6a359e01e5f7fd09d3aa2a30b3a84c. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Waldstein, David. "Ichiro Suzuki Reaches 3,000 Hits, Again Breaking Ground for Japanese Players." New York Times, 7 Aug. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/sports/baseball/ichiro-suzuki-reaches-3000-hits-miami-marlins.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Whiting, Robert. The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime. New York, Warner, 2004.