Ichiro Suzuki is all about baseball, but he is much more than that at home in Japan. Ichiro is a wellspring of national pride — like Shohei Ohtani now — and his fame across the Pacific was therapeutic as the national economy sputtered through the so-called lost decades.

Ichiro Suzuki has made history as the first Japanese player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, leading the 2024 class alongside CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.