During the eighth inning in the Tokyo Dome, as the 45,000-strong crowd stood up to cheer, Ichiro Suzuki trotted out onto the field one last time.

Ichiro’s Seattle Mariners faced the Oakland A’s in the MLB season-opening series in Japan on Thursday. The baseball legend couldn’t have picked a better way to retire: in the land of his birth, and with the Seattle team with which he started his career in America.