Will Ichiro Suzuki become the second player ever elected into the Hall of Fame unanimously? That’s up for debate. Here’s what’s not up for debate: Ichiro is all but certain on Tuesday night to be voted into Cooperstown on his first ballot. To mark the occasion, here’s a selection of writing about Ichiro that has appeared in The Athletic through the years. We start with a rollicking portrait of Ichiro behind the scenes.
Untold stories of Ichiro: Wrestling with Griffey, All-Star speeches and ‘Ichi wings’
Mike Sweeney, Royals first baseman and Mariners teammate: In 2000, I was part of the MLB All-Star team that went to Japan to play in the Goodwill Series against the Japanese all-stars. Ichiro didn’t play because he was preparing to sign with Seattle. Everyone knew about Ichiro. While we were in Japan, every time an American player got a base hit, you’d hear the term, “Nice batting,” in a Japanese accent over the speaker system. It would say on the jumbotron: “Nice batting.” I thought, “Wow, that’s a kind common gesture.” So in 2001, it’s the first few weeks of the season, and we’re playing against the Mariners. So, of course, he hits a line drive over the shortstop’s head for a single. With total respect, I didn’t know if he knew any English. So I looked over, and, in my imitation of what I heard in Japan, I said, “Ichiro, nice batting.” And he looks at me and goes, “Mike Sweeney, nice ass.” — Corey Brock, Rustin Dodd and Jayson Jenks | Full story
Ichiro Suzuki is a virtual lock for Cooperstown. He’s already spent lots of time there
Ordinary people go on vacation. Ichiro Suzuki goes to Cooperstown.
“I don’t like to visit places,” Ichiro said, speaking through his interpreter, Allen Turner. “Out of anywhere in the world, besides the places I’ve lived, Cooperstown is the place I’ve visited the most.”
Ichiro, 50, trekked to the village in upstate New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, seven times between 2001 and 2016. He has toured the museum more than any active or recently retired player, according to Hall officials. And he almost certainly can start planning trip No. 8 for July 2025, when he is a virtual lock to become the first Japanese player inducted at Cooperstown. — Ken Rosenthal | Full story
Ichiro made sure every detail was perfect, an example his former Marlins teammates haven’t forgotten
Ichiro Suzuki once took teammate Dan Straily out for a sushi dinner during a road trip in Philadelphia.
The invitation didn’t surprise Straily. But the time by which Ichiro said he’d meet him in the hotel lobby did.
“He told me to be there by 7:19,” Straily said. “I was like, ‘That’s weird, so precise.’ He had looked up that it took exactly 11 minutes to get from the hotel to the restaurant, and we had a 7:30 reservation.” — Andre Fernandez | Full story
Ichiro was never unprepared, and that won’t change now
Ichiro remains one of the most fascinating persons of the half-century that some of us have covered baseball. He also fascinated the Marlins’ uniformed personnel. Two springs ago, while I was behind the batting cage watching BP with Barry Bonds, Ichiro came out to join in his hitting group. “Here’s something you might not know,” he told us. “Barry Bonds and I have exactly the same number of career hits.”
He was right. Neither of us knew that.
He walked around and into the cage. “He’s unlike anyone who ever played,” said Bonds. “His work ethic. His approach. No one else could ever lean so far forward and still keep his strength and his hands so far back. No one else could do what he does.” — Peter Gammons | Full story
The ikigai of Ichiro
The circumstances that brought Ichiro to these 2018 Mariners and have kept him here are messy and unexpected, so unlike the engineered precision that has defined his career to date. To outside observers, maybe it looks a little silly, or even sad. But look deeper. Study the pictures of Ichiro with the team carefully, and you will see Ichiro embracing his baseball family, a family of his choosing that he has learned to create over time.
A repudiation of the lonely death, the utmost expression of ikigai: It’s the furthest thing from sad I can think of. — Kate Pruesser | Full story
The Baseball 100: No. 100, Ichiro Suzuki
There has never been one like him. And there probably never will be again. — Joe Posnanski | Full story
(Top photo of Ichiro Suzuki before a game in 2001, his rookie year in MLB: Jeff Gross / Allsport via Getty Images)
