The 45 year old baseball icon played his final major league game on March 21st in Japan. He played in parts of 19 seasons in the majors and nine in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league. Ichiro never failed to live up to the hype of his star status. Stating in 2002, "I'm unique. I'm a very rare kind of player," Ichiro proved to all fans that he in fact was a generational talent that the game of baseball will forever cherish for the remainder of history.
"He may not have surpassed Rose in hits, but to make it into the hall of fame in two countries seems to perfectly encapsulate a player who had the unique distinction of being a superstar in two leagues — a feat capped perfectly by his final games as a professional coming in Japan. Adding up what he did between the leagues in an accurate manner may be difficult, but declaring it to have been rare — to use Suzuki’s word — is remarkably easy."
He came into this organization in 2001 as Japan’s most prolific hitter, and 19 years, 10 All-Star appearances, 10 Gold Gloves, two batting titles, and 3,089 hits later, will ultimately end up in Cooperstown.
A .311 hitter in the majors and a .353 hitter in Japan, Suzuki is perhaps the greatest spray hitter in history regardless of league. He hit for very little power — despite being known for prodigious blasts in batting practice — and drew relatively few walks.
The surefire Hall of Famer will go down as one of the greatest hitters of all-time and certainly the best Japan-born player in recent memory.
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2019/02/16/ichiro-suzuki-grateful-final-ride-mariners/2894063002/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/sports/ichiro-suzuki-hit-total.html
- https://hypebeast.com/2019/3/ichiro-suzuki-retires-mlb-baseball-seattle-mariners-japan
- https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/25ba15b1ca114808f8aeb1bae85475ef5a8f7478/c=31-0-1531-2000/local/-/media/2018/05/03/USATODAY/USATODAY/636609546793758472-AP-RANGERS-MARINERS-3602509.JPG
- https://cdn.mainichi.jp/vol1/2019/04/05/20190405p2a00m0sp005000p/8.jpg?1