Ichiro Suzuki becomes first Asian player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Ichiro Suzuki, the dominant contact hitter whose 19 years in the major leagues, most of them with the Seattle Mariners, were lined with records and accolades, on Tuesday became the first Asian player elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

He received 99.7% of the vote, missing a unanimous selection by one vote. New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, inducted in 2019, remains the only member of the Hall of Fame to get 100%.

Ichiro joins starting pitcher CC Sabathia and relief pitcher Billy Wagner as part of the class of 2025 headed to Cooperstown, New York.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Japanese government’s top spokesperson, congratulated Ichiro on Wednesday, telling reporters in Tokyo that he was “a superstar who has given hope and dreams to many people.”

Ichiro made his debut with the Mariners in 2001, becoming the first Japanese position player to join Major League Baseball. That season he won both the American League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards. 

He went on to be a 10-time All Star and earned 10 Gold Glove awards for exceptional defense, as well as three Silver Slugger awards for his elite batting. Ichiro earned a reputation as an exceptional leadoff hitter (with a .311 career batting average) and as a formidable right fielder who, even at 5-foot-9, was known to scale outfield walls to rob home runs. 

Ichiro racked up 3,089 hits in MLB after having already played nine years in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. Combining his hits from both leagues, he had 4,367 hits across his professional career, the most of any player in baseball history. 

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Ichiro told NBC News in a 2022 interview that he endured his share of challenges after he arrived in Seattle and that he was intensely aware of how American fans would perceive him. While he said he didn’t set out to “perform for Asians,” he knew his performance would be scrutinized if he didn’t deliver. 

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“As a player from Japan, as a guy that had led the league in hitting all seven years and then coming over being a first position player, I knew that I would be judged. And Japan baseball will be judged on how I did,” he said through a translator. “If I wasn’t able to produce, then they would judge Japan baseball as being at a lower level. And so that pressure was there, and that’s what I had to carry.” 

Early on, fans would heckle him with jeers like “Go back to Japan,” Ichiro recalled, describing the interactions as “the norm” for him at the time. But he quickly chipped away at those who sought to doubt or dismiss him, hitting a home run in his first road game. In 2019, he retired with the Mariners, playing his final game at the Tokyo Dome against the Oakland Athletics. 

Ichiro was also voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame this month, getting 323 out of 349 votes in his first year of eligibility. In 2022, he was the first Asian player to be inducted into the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame.