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.
Ichiro was American baseball’s biggest Japanese superstar. A’s manager Bob Melvin, who managed the Mariners during Ichiro’s tenure, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he doesn’t know if any other player during his time has been so influential.
“It was the first time we saw what Japanese baseball was all about, when he came over here,” Melvin said. “He’s been an ambassador, he’s been an entertainer and he’s a great player on top of it. He’s one of the most impactful players, for me, in baseball history.”
After making his name in Japan, where he finished one season with the country’s second best batting mark ever, Ichiro opened his MLB career with the Mariners in 2001.
As a hitter, he was known not for power but for speed. The 10-time All-Star had more than 3,000 hits over his big league career. A right fielder, he was also Japan’s first non-pitcher to join the U.S. major leagues. There’s no doubt he’ll end up in the Hall of Fame in both countries.
“I have achieved so many of my dreams in baseball, both in my career in Japan and, since 2001, in Major League Baseball,” Ichiro said in a statement after the Mariners beat the A’s in his final game. “I am honored to end my big-league career where it started, in Seattle, and think it is fitting that my last games as a professional were played in my home country of Japan.”
His team was a little more sentimental, tweeting out photos of the legend hugging his teammates with the caption, “There’s crying in baseball.”
Ichiro opened the door for other Japanese players to come to the U.S., after MLB scouts saw the talent he had to offer. His last game coincided with the American Major League debut of Yusei Kikuchi, who left Japan to pitch for the Mariners.
After catching a fly ball to end the fourth inning, Ichiro saw Kikuchi outside the dugout. He gave the rookie a fist bump.
