Ichiro Suzuki created history as first Asian and Japanese-born person to join the elite National Baseball Hall of Fame club.
According to ESPN, Suzuki was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Sunday, July 27, in Cooperstown, along with CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Dick Allen, and Dave Parker.
Rain delayed the ceremony for several hours; however, the five speeches of the Hall of Famers went well in the hot and humid temperature, which became good with Japanese baseball’s humorous speech, who told Yankees fans that he knows they came for Sabathia and that’s fine because he deserves their love.
While delivering comments in English, he said, “For the third time, I am a rookie… Three thousand (career) hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognised by the writers. Except, oh, one of you.”
Referring to his offer to invite writers who did not vote for him, he added, “The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now ... expired!”
After getting fame in Japan following over nine seasons with the Orix BlueWave and hitting .353, he joined the Seattle Mariners at the age of 27, and in his first season, he won AL Rookie of the Year and MVP awards after hitting .350.
The 51-year-old asserted, “If you consistently do the little things, there's no limit to what you can achieve. Look at me. I'm 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers."
Notably, despite beginning his MLB career late, Suzuki gained highlighted achievements throughout his career, including 3,089 hits in the US and 4,367 total, and 10 Gold Glove awards.
