Ichiro Suzuki Becomes First Japanese MLB Hall of Famer

Joining Suzuki were former pitchers Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia. What makes Suzuki’s induction especially noteworthy is the fact that he has become the first Japanese-born player to become a Hall of Famer. Out of 394 ballots cast by writers, 393 of them (99.74 percent) selected the famed outfielder.

The impact Suzuki made on the sport cannot be overstated enough. Despite playing for a relatively smaller market in Seattle as opposed to Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago, Suzuki was one of baseball’s biggest stars.

He had elite speed — strategically spraying the ball around the park on the ground to get on base. Suzuki was a terror on the base baths. When coming into the league as a rookie at age 27, he mustered 56 stolen bags. He also never struck out more than 86 times in a single season.

The two most impressive attributes involved getting hits and overall batting average. Despite coming into the league in his late 20s, Suzuki still accrued 3,089 career hits playing primarily in one of the biggest pitcher’s parks in the Big Leagues. In 19 seasons playing in the United States, Suzuki had a .311 career batting average.

Perhaps more than anything, Suzuki helped in paving the way for other Japanese position players to succeed stateside. We saw pitchers have success here — though position players never enjoyed the same levels of prestige and success until Suzuki exploded onto the scene.